


Work In Progress

by Just_A_Little_Fucked_Up



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Like Slower Than Molasses In The Middle Of Winter At The North Pole With Below Zero Temperatures, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2020-04-11
Packaged: 2020-11-09 05:00:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20847911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_A_Little_Fucked_Up/pseuds/Just_A_Little_Fucked_Up
Summary: A young woman is taken from one world and thrown into another to play a game of life and death. In a place where death lurks around every corner, maybe her solice will be found in one of the most unexpected places. Or maybe this is just another game in and of itself.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I'm bad at summaries. I may also be bad at writing, but fuck it. I won't find out until I try and I won't get better without practice. So please bear with me.

It was an odd feeling. You're awake but it feels like you're still dreaming. Or maybe you're stuck in a place somewhere in between. You're neither warm nor cold. You're eyes are open yet all you can see is darkness. 'How can something so dark be so blinding' you wonder. 

The only thing deeper than the darkness is the silence. The only sound is your heart beating and even that soon becomes deafening in your ears. 

Then you feel it. Something in the dark is moving. No. The darkness itself is moving. You can feel panic starting to bubble in your chest. You try to move but it's useless. Your limbs feel like they aren't your own. 

It's a nightmare, you try to convince yourself. To feel so heavy and so weightless all at once, this can't be real. 

Then in the dark you hear it. Only a whisper at first, it sounded so distant. You try to call out to it but you voice doesn't make a sound. This is a nightmare you tell yourself, it has to be. This doesn't make any sense.

"Doesn't it though" 

You're startled to hear a woman's voice. Soft but stern. It sounded so close yet so far away at the same time. 

You try to call out again, but to no avail.

"Don't stress yourself Dear, it won't help" the voice says. This time much closer. 

You try to move your head in an attempt to find the source, but are barely able to do even that.

"Do you know where you are?" the voice asks.

Still unable speak, you resign to shaking your head.

"No, of course not, they never do." the voice replies.

The panic that had started to subside with the knowledge the you weren't alone starts creeping back in, faster now. You may not be alone but you may not be safe either. 

You hear a laugh. Quiet but ominous. 

"If you haven't pieced it together by now then allow me to enlighten you." The voice says.

"You are dead. Or you were before I found you at least. But I've decide to gift you another chance at life, or rather another chance at death. You're in my world now and starting soon, you will take part in my trials. They will test your strength, endurance, cunning, but most importantly they will test your will to live. You will live or you will die for me, but you will never rest and you will never truly escape. Now I've kept you long enough, go prepare yourself for the rest of your eternity here.

And like that you were falling. Your head spinning, not quite comprehending all the information that was just presented to you. The only clear thought, 'When was this nightmare going to end?'

Then you're on your feet walking through a dense forest. You don't remember when you started walking or when you landed for that matter, but something was telling you to move forward. 

And as you slowly regain your consciousness you become increasingly aware of your surroundings. You become aware of a thick fog covering the entire forest floor and how easy it would be to get lost, had you even known where you were to begin with. 

And despite your best efforts of pushing it down, in the back of your mind you can't help but feel like you're not alone in this forest. 

Then you see it, a light in the distance. And before you know it you're running. One foot after the other, faster and farther than you had ever run before in your life. 

As you grow near you can see a clearing up ahead and a fire blazing. You feel hope starting to bubble to the surface. Hope that you may be free of this nightmare soon enough. As you draw nearer the forest starts to thin out and you're able to make out voices up ahead.

Then you're there standing at the edge of the clearing and you see them. A group of people, some your age and a few older, gathered around a campfire. And you're overcome by a feeling of calm, knowing that you're finally safe.

You approach the campfire slowly, not wanting to startle the very people that may be your salvation. And it isn't until you're only a couple of meters away that one of them finally notices you. 

"uh guys." A young girl with pigtails starts. 

"We've got company."


	2. Flabbergasted At First Sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Background Building and The First Trial. Think of this as two chapters in one. 
> 
> Also O/C's name is Wren

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written in a bit of a rush. If you find any mistakes let me know. In the comments. Edits will be made.

The woman's head was spinning again at the onslaught of new information that she was, yet again, presented with. 

"So let me get this straight. We magically get called into a 'trial' by a force unknown to man, fix generators to power exit gates in an attempt to escape said trail, heal and look after teammates to increase our own odds of survival, and do all of that whilst being hunted by one, of many, blood thirsty serial killers. All of which have their own personal abilities that are designed to not only hurt us but to also keep us from getting these things done? Just to do it all over again regardless of the outcome? Does that about cover it?" 

"And don't die. That's a big one." A girl that visually and mentally embodied the overall stereotype of 'punk rock' and later became known as Nea, responded.

"Right, right, don't die" Came the quiet response. 

Wren had only been at the campfire for an hour now, or so she thought it was an hour. Seeing as it was difficult to determine the time of day when 'daytime' wasn't an actual concept in this place.

Exasperated didn't begin to explain the way she felt about her current situation. Not long after she was noticed by the girl she now knew as Meg, she had been seated in front of the campfire and after a few brief introductions, she had several people explaining to her the 'predicament' she found herself in. 

"It's a lot to take in, we know, but after a couple trials it will all start to make sense." Meg said.

"Yeah, I'm sure everything will make sense in no time." She hadn't meant to sound so cynical, but the events of today were starting to wear her down. 

"Is sleep still a thing in this place?" Wren asked. 

"Yeah it's still a thing, and that brings us to our next point." Meg said.

"We need to go find your cabin."

"My..what?" Wren asked.

"Your cabin. Everyone gets one when they appear. Meg stated.

"What did you think we'd been sleeping on the ground this whole time?" Came Nea's snarky response. 

"Considering everything that I've been told so far, I wouldn't be surprised." Wren answered.

Meg stood from the spot where she had been seated at for the last hour or so, while she was explaining the ins and outs of the trials and now she beckoned for the new girl to follow her. 

Wren stood slowly, not entirely confident in her own legs. They still felt like jelly. Whether that was from her time before being thrown into this hellscape or if it was from over exerting herself earlier trying to find some semblance of safety, she couldn't tell. What she could infer was that she needed to rest. If anything these people had told her held even a fraction of the truth, she knew that the best thing she could do now would be to prepare for the inevitable as best as she could.

Wren had been so lost in thought that she hadn't noticed that she had been following Meg away from the campfire for quite a few minutes now. And it wasn't until Meg cleared her throat that she snapped out of it entirely. 

"Like I was saying." Meg continued. "I think this is our stop."

Wren hadn't even noticed her talking and had half a mind to apologize until she realized that they were standing in front of a decent sized log cabin.

"I've never seen this house before in my life. How can you be so sure that this one is mine?" Wren asked.

"Simple." Meg answered. "This cabin wasn't here before you showed up and now it is. Therefore, by process of elimination, this must be your cabin."

Wren must have been more tired that she thought, as that seemed like a perfectly normal explanation coming from her newfound friend.

As she stepped up to the building she started to take in more details. The cabin looked to be made out of a dark wood of sorts, with an upper floor and a small porch, just big enough for a porch swing. That thought alone brought back memories from her childhood, memories she wasn't ready to face yet in light of her current situation. 

Shaking herself out of it she took the doorknob and braced herself for what awaited her on the other side of the door. Ready to get it over with quickly, she decided to turn the doorknob and start walking forward at the same time. Which resulted in, her running facefirst into said door. Locked.

For the second time today, Wren had completely forgotten about Meg's presence, up until the point when Meg started laughing uncontrollably. 

'Making a great first impression at how competent you are.' Wren thought to herself.

After her laughter had subsided, Meg told her that the keys were typically under the doormat. And after checking Wren could confirm that that was in fact where the keys were, noting that there was more than one but not saying anything about it. Not daring to look back at Meg, knowing damn well that her own face probably shared a striking resemblance to a tomato. 

Wren put one of the keys in the lock and and turned, thanking her lucky star that she got the right key on the first try. She didn't think she could stand being in Meg's presence anymore, despite how kind she was being. Wren was feeling more than a little overwhelmed by the days events and just wanted to go to sleep. Though she did have it in her to turn around and wish Meg a goodnight before heading inside. Briefly pausing to find a light switch before closing the door behind her.

Once on the other side of the door Wren took a moment to take everything in. She was shocked to find that the cabin was actually very cozy. A small living space to her right contained a black sectional couch that was flush against the corner with a coffee table right in front. Directly in front of the living space some ways, still running along the right wall of the house, was a fully functioning kitchen, equipped with fridge, sink, microwave oven, stove, but most importantly a coffee pot. 'How bad could this place be if they let you have coffee?' She thought to herself before continuing her mental tour of the place. She noticed a fireplace in the dead center of the house just right of a staircase. Said staircase led her to a small loft area that overlooked the living space. Inside she saw a queen sized bed taking up almost all of the right side of the loft while the left side had a couple medium sized bookshelves practically overflowing with books and a single recliner tucked into the corner with a window that overlooked a decent amount of the forest.

Satisfied with her tour, Wren made her way over the the queen sized bed and couldn't help but drop herself onto it. Feeling the tension and stress that had built up in her muscles over the course of the day finally relax. As she laid in her bed she could feel herself quickly be pulled into subconsciousness. But before it could take her, she could have sworn that she heard a gentle humming coming from the forest.

\---

When she awoke next she nearly had a panic attack. Not recognizing where she was for a second and seeing that it was still night she thought that she'd slept through the whole day. Before the events of yesterday came crashing back to her and she remembered that things didn't exactly work the same here. After laying back down for a few seconds and collecting her thoughts, she finally decided that she needed a shower and pulled herself out of bed. 

After a quick lap around her new home she came to the startling conclusion that her home didn't have a shower. A bathroom, yes. A shower, no. 

She was so caught up in the here and now and how bizarre that one little detail was, that when smoke started forming at her feet it took her brain a ridiculous amount to connect the dots. She was being pulled into a trial.

If she had to explain the feeling of being swallowed by the fog, she'd have to say it was like going down a flight of stairs in the dark and missing a step. Thinking that the floor beneath you was solid and being reminded by a small heart attack that it was not.

So when she saw the fog rising, her mind started to short circuit. The reality of the situation finally dawning on her. She was about to be put in the middle of a life or death trial, simply for the sake of entertaining and feeding a sadistic deity.

At that moment she felt herself fall through her floor and land in front of the campfire. 

"What the fuck?" Being the only coherent thought in her head.

"Hey there youngblood. Figured we'd be seeing you sooner rather than later" an older man said.

Wren recognized him from lastnight. "Hey Bill."

She also noticed Meg and Nea on the far side of the bonfire from her and Bill. This is it. This was her team. As everyone got their gear and readied up, she couldn't help the sinking feeling in her gut. And before long the fog started creeping up her legs once more. Taking one last second to look at the people around her, she noticed a not so subtle look pass between the other three. Then they were gone.

The next time she opened her eyes she had to close them again almost immediately as everything was spinning. Struggling against the motion sick feeling in her stomach. This time when she opened her eyes the world had stopped. She took a moment to collect herself and take in her surroundings like she had been taught to do by the others. 

She seemed to be surrounded by cornstalks and in the distance she could see a derelict looking house. That didn't hold her focus for very long however as she also spotted a generator not far from where she had been standing. Slowly and quietly she made her way over to it when she realized, she knew what to do but she had no idea how to do it. They never explained to her how to actually fix these machines the day before. Saying that "hands on practice would be necessary".

Then something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Movement in the cornstalks to her left. After a moment of looking and not seeing anything she released a breath she didn't know she had been holding. Only to be reminded of something that was brought up while they were filling Wren in yesterday at the bonfire. A dark haired man with a green jacket and cargo pants had said that, "Not all killers make sound when they're close by, so don't let your guard down until you know for sure who you're dealing with." 

Her train of thought was derailed soon enough though when she heard something. A twig snapping in the same direction where she thought she had seen something earlier. And as she turned to look for the source of the noise she was startled to see..

"Nea? Goddamnit woman, you almost gave me a heart attack." Wren said as quietly as she could given the situation.

"Time for that hands on training new kid so focus. I don't know how much time we have before she finds us so watch and listen." Nea said. In perhaps the quietest voice Wren had ever heard her use.

And she quickly got to work. Showing Wren the ins and outs the do's and the don'ts. Wren was so focused on her teachings that when Nea's hands stopped working on the machine, it took her a second to register that something was wrong. 

Looking up at Nea, she saw the girl slowly rise from the crouched position she had taken up to work on the machine and peak her head just above the generator to look for whatever had caught her attention. 

"Shit" Nea exclaimed. "Okay did anyone teach you how to get away during a chase?" Nea asked.

Wren didn't like where this was going, but she shook her head yes anyway. 

"Windows, pallets, and jungle gyms. I remember." Wren said quietly.

"Good you might have to utilize that knowledge sooner then expected." Nea said, all but confirming her fears. 

"How close are they?" Wren asked.

"Can you not hear her?"Nea responded.

That's when Wren heard a strange song coming from somewhere in the direction of the house and it took her a little while to register that she had been hearing that song for a couple of minutes now.

"Wait. That singing is..?" Wren asked almost incredulously.

"Yes. That humming is the killer and the fact that you can hear it means she's close." Nea said.

It was in that moment that Wren's curiosity won out over her self-preservation. And she dared a peek over the generator, just as she had seen Nea do. She looked over in the direction of the house, hoping to get a glimpse of the killer and be satisfied with just that. 

What she saw instead was the tallest, buffest, and angriest woman she had ever seen in her life. Wearing a rabbit mask from the looks of it and chasing Meg through and around the house. Wren would go on record saying that she had absolutely no control over what came out of her mouth next. 

And as the tell-tale notes of a whistled catcall left her lips, she realized, just a second too late, what she had done. 

She took a second to look at Nea searching for any sort of help, but Nea looked like she didn't know whether to strangle you where you stood or burst at the seams laughing. She did offer a quiet "Run."

You stood paralyzed for a second but soon the humming became louder and you felt your feet respond faster than your mind did. Carrying you to the far side of the map and away from Nea and Meg. Soon though, your legs and lungs started to give so you ducked into a jungle gym and hid in a locker. Seconds felt like minutes and minutes lasted for hours. Or so it felt as Wren heard the humming getting nearer and nearer, until it sounded like it was right outside her locker.

And then it passed. Slowly. And just as Wren was about to leave her locker, the doors to her sanctuary swung open violently and a hand reached in only to stop short and when Wren looked into the face of her killer she saw that the killer was just as surprised to find Wren as she was to be found. 

It didn't stop her though as she grabbed Wren by the throat and hoisted her onto her shoulder taking off to some unknown destination. 

"Fuckin' rude!" Wren practically shouted. "You do not manhandle a woman." 

Wren didn't really know what she had expected from the killers but she was in genuine shock. She thought she had seen the worst until she remembered what the survivors had said happened after they had been..

And before she could finish her thought a grotesque looking hook was placed through her back and right above where she assumed her heart was. The scream that tore from her lips didn't even sound like her, and when it stopped she was left hanging. Looking around in a daze. Not really comprehending what had happened. Not being able to think over the pain that wracked her body. And so she closed her eyes and let herself slowly drift away.

It wasn't until a warm pair of hands were lifting her off of the hook that she bothered opening her eyes. Meg looked at her with concern, she was trying to say something but Wren couldn't hear anything over the blood pounding in her ears. But then she did hear something. 

Louder than the pounding. Louder than the humming that was making it's way towards her. What she hear could only be described as a large door opening. She looked to Meg and could tell that she had heard it too.

"I don't know where it is." You say "You lead I'll follow."

And like that you two are making your way through the map along a far wall. You couldn't have been walking for make than a couple of minutes but it felt like so much longer. 'Probably the blood loss' a voice in the back of your head tells you. Then you're gone.

\---

..en? Wren? A panicked voice calls out to you. 

..en, you've got to wake up she's coming. Same voice but it sounded further away. 

You open your eyes a little bit and you're looking up at a blurry sky. You're on your back? 'When did that happen?' You think to yourself. You try to ease yourself into a sitting position and succeed for a second before you body tries to pitch forward. After struggling for a few seconds you decide to lean yourself against the wall for support.

Taking a second to look around. The first thing you notice is the ground, it looks like it's on fire. The second thing you notice is three blurrs running away. The third and final thing that you notice is humming and something warm lifting you up. Your head lulls to the side without any support and you try to think but your thoughts are too clouded. 

It isn't until a familiar feeling makes itself known in your chest. There it was again, like it had never left. The hook that started it all. Wren couldn't even find it in herself to scream. She just let herself hang there until everything started to spiral out of focus. Stealing one last look at the woman that had put her there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone ask for a heaping pile of foreshadowing? No? Just me? Okay.


	3. Oblivious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter in which Wren has a near death encounter and is completely oblivious to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to decide to make this chapter either very short, or very long. So I decided to spare you guys and keep it short.

After being 'sacrificed', she had materialized back at the campfire and was quickly surrounded by her former teammates who had beaten her back. All spilling over one another trying to explain to her what had happened. 

How she had been unhooked and following them one second, only to have passed out the next. How they had tried to carry her to an exit but abandoned her when they realized how fruitless the situation was and that the 'Huntress', as they called her, would be on them in seconds. 

Wren sat there in silence for a while as three different versions of the same story berated her brain.

"So what heppened after we left?" Meg asked after a short period of silence.

"She got hooked. Obviously." Nea said before Wren could form a coherent answer.

"Unless she got mori'd." Came Bill's quiet response.

Then three sets of eyes were all turned towards her simultaneously. 

"Mori'd?" Came her weak response. 

"Yeah. Each killer has a special way of.."

"Nea." Meg interrupted. "I think shes got enough to worry about for one day."

An awkward silence settled over the small group after that.

Meg was right. Wren was still reeling from the events that took place not too long ago. Had she actually died? Well 'died'. 

Her mind was still racing when she was startled by the sound of abrupt laughter. 

Nea was across the campfire from her, seemingly losing her mind over a joke that nobody else seemed to be in on.

"I can't believe you catcalled the Huntress." She managed to get out in between fits of laughter.

"You did what?" Came Bill's shocked response.

"Oh yeah." Meg said starting to crack up herself, seemingly just now remembering.

"I'll say it again. You did what?" Bill was having a hard time hiding his grin now. 

"She catcalled the Huntress while Meg was being chased." Nea said finally calming down enough.

"You understand the goal is to survive these trials right?" Bill asked. 

"Listen, it's not like I meant to or anything. I was just surprised is all." Wren answered. 

"And not a moment too soon if you ask me. She almost had me there." Meg said having recovered herself.

"Well you guys have fun hashing out the details, I'm going to head back to my cabin." Wren said hoping the blush that was spreading across her face wasn't too noticeable. 

"Well, the entity typically lets newcomers off easy on their first couple of days. One or two trials at most." Meg said "So you probably have time to hit the showers." 

"The showers?" Wren asked

"Yeah, the cabins have just about everything else you need but I guess the Entity wanted to keep some aspect of traditional 'camping' so we have a communal bath house towards the edge of camp." Meg continued pointing off in a direction. 

"Let's just hope you don't run into.." Nea started before catching herself.

"Wait. We all share the same showers?" Wren said not noticing what had just happened.

"Well no. The boys and girls are seperated." Meg started. She looked like she wanted to say something else but Nea gave her a look and she stopped.

"Okay then." Wren said skeptically. Catching the look Meg and Nea shared. "If that's all, I think I'll be taking my leave."

And with that and a few short goodbyes Wren was off. She decided to head back to her cabin to pick up a few supplies before making her way to the bath house. Heading off in the direction Meg had pointed, it didn't take long for a decent sized building to come into view. And Wren decided that this must be it.

Heading inside she was pleased to find that she was in the right place. Taking a look around she could see she was standing in a large rectangular room. The left side was lined with several shower stalls. In the center a long wall that was adorned with several mirrors and sinks lined up right beside one another. The right wall, from what she could tell, looked like it led into a seperate room and inside that room she could see what looked like a large pool, filled to the brim with water. Only there was steam coming off of the surface of this water. And she deemed that that was why this place was called the bath house. 

As apprehensive as Wren was to bathe in a semi-public bath house, she decided that personal hygiene came first. And as tempting as jumping into that hot spring was, cleanliness came first. So she headed for the showers. 

After cleaning herself of the grime that had accumulated over the last couple days, she made her way over to a sink to brush her teeth. And once she was finished with that she decided to pack her things and head back to her cabin.

She had become painfully aware of how hungry she was during her time in the bath house and sadly her hunger beat out any thought she had of enjoying a nice soak in the hot spring. 

On her way out she passed two other women on their way in. One very tall with short brown hair and the other roughly Wren's height with shoulder length black hair. 

Being in a rush to appease her growing hunger, she didn't stop to give either of these women more than a quick once over. Maybe if she had, she would have noticed something strangely familiar about one of them. But she didn't. With a quick "Excuse me" she was past them and on her way home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More foreshadowing? Y'know someone might think that I'm actually enjoying this.
> 
> Hopefully, I'll have the next chapter finished and proofed by tomorrow to make up for such a short chapter today. Bear with me. 
> 
> Love and kisses


	4. A Second Is Enough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wren's 'first' encounter with little Miss Piggy.

It had been roughly a week since her first trial and Wren was beginning to see some improvement. Not much, seeing that she still hadn't managed to make it out of a trial alive. But there was improvement. A successful juke here, and a pallet stun there. Not always purpose, but hell she'd take the small victories at this point. So on this particular evening, when the fog started swirling at her feet, the best she could do was brace herself for the inevitable, again. 

When her feet were on solid ground again and the world had stopped spinning, she took a moment to get her bearings. She was pleasantly surprised to see an oriental style building in the distance. The tale tell sign that she was at the Yamaoka Estate. 

She had been here one other time prior and it was quickly becoming her favorite trial location. With dense brush and foliage growing to be almost as tall as she was, Yamaoka was the easiest place to hide in plain sight. 

Having gathered herself and her thoughts, Wren set off to find a generator to work on. It didn't take long to find one. Nestled in between some rocks and foliage and she didn't waste any time getting to work. She was surprised for a second when she saw Jake creeping out of some bushes on his way to come assist her.

"Have you seen the killer yet?" She asked.

"No. Not yet." Came his disgruntled response.

"Is something wrong with that?" Wren responded.

"I don't know how to explain it." He said. "It's like if you found a spider in your room, as long as you can see it then it's fine. Scary still, but fine. It's when you can't see it that it becomes problematic." He explained.

"I guess that makes sense." Wren said.

"That and I haven't heard anything. No chainsaw, no shrieking, and no otherworldly growls. So there isn't any way to know who it is until someone gets caught." Jake finished. 

Wren could see the reasoning behind his apparent uneasiness. What's more though is that she could see how close they were to finishing their gen. 

"Don't worry Bud, we're almost done here." Wren said. "And besides, I haven't heard anyone get downed so the others must be pretty close to finishing a gen on their end too."

"I guess you're right." Came Jake's response.

And almost like clockwork, they heard a gen coming to life on the far side of the map. The feeling of temporary relief was drowned out however when the sound of a roar deafened her. 

"Son of a -" was the last thing she heard from Jake.

She sprang to her feet faster than she would have thought humanly possible and prepared to run, but it was too late. She got swiped and in a bout of panic and adrenaline she was running towards the nearest safe haven, in this case the building that the map was named after. 

It wasn't long after she reached her destination that she stopped to catch her breath, realizing that the killer didn't give chase. She took a second to collect herself before searching the building for the generator that always spawned in it. She found said gen with next to no trouble and what's more is she found Claudette already working on it. 

She swore that woman never looked as beautiful as she did whenever you got injured.

"Hey Claude, funny running into you here." Wren said. With her short burst of adrenaline wearing off, the gash in her side was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

"Jesus Christ. I'd ask what happened to you but I already know." Came the dark skinned woman's response. 

"You know?" Wren asked.

"Yeah. It's sad but after doing this for so long I can tell who the killer is just by marks they leave behind. Well that and I've already seen her. Hell I almost walked right into her, but that's besides the point. Get over here so I can patch you up." Claude said, pulling herself away from the gen she had been working on. 

"So who is it?" Wren asked while Claudette got to work on the gash in her side. 

"We call her The Pig." Claudette started.

"And you wonder why she wants to kill us?" Wren replied.

"We call her that because of the pig head she wears as a mask. Not because of her physique" Claudette finished.

"So crazy lady in a pig mask, doesn't really explain how she was able to sneak up on us like that." Wren said.

"She's one of those silent killers we told you about. She can creep right up to us without our knowing, that is until it's too late." Claude said finishing up her patch job and making her way back to the generator she had been working on. "Wait, did you say us?" She asked.

"Yeah, Jake and I were working on a gen together when she showed up and stabbed me." Wren said also beginning to work on said gen. "I was lucky to get away in one piece."

"I wouldn't say you were lucky per say. The Pig and Jake have a bit of a complicated relationship. Well not really that complicated, but she's probably going to kill him before she even bothers coming after us." Claude said.

"What did Jake do, break her heart or something? Wren asked. 

"Not her heart exactly. See when Little Miss Piggy downs us she throws a trap on our heads." Claude continued.

"A trap on our heads?" Wren asked.

"Yeah, Jake calls them reverse bear traps. Once they're on your head a timer starts to countdown and you have to go around looking through these metal boxes that are scattered all throughout the map in hopes that you find a key to unlock said bear trap before it goes off. Or so that's how it should be, but a few months ago Jake snuck into the Piggy's workshop and stole one." Claude said.

"Wait what happens if the trap goes off?" Wren asked.

"Your head explodes, it's pretty gruesome." Claude said with a noticable wince. "But back to what I was saying. Jake stole one of her reverse bear traps and worked on it until he figured out how to get it open without a key. Safe to say she didn't like that very much and makes a point to single him out and kill him every match before he can break her traps." Claude finished just as the generator went live. 

During their conversation another generator was activated. 

"Looks like Meg is making good use of Jake's distraction. It may be best to split up and cover more ground." Claude said making her way over to a window and jumping out. 

"I guess that settles that then." Wren said to no one in particular.

She decided that since the killer was busy, she may as well head back out and finish the gen she and Jake had started. Making her way through the overgrown brush it didn't take her long to find her gen and begin working. After a few minutes of relative ease she had nearly finished the generator when she heard a man's scream and felt a shockwave that shook the whole trial grounds. 

Jake had been sacrificed which meant that the killer was no longer preoccupied by her personal vendetta. Wren had to make a decision. Finish this gen and give away her location and hopefully escape unscathed or abandon it and hope that her other teammates nearly had the last two gens finished. 

The sound of Claudette's scream dragged her out of her thoughts. And with a moment of hesitation, Wren pulled the last few wires into place and heard the gen come to life. She could only hope that Claudette could keep the killer busy for a couple of seconds while she made her escape. That was number four. One more gen and they were home free. 

This was the farthest Wren had ever made it during a trial without being hooked or killed. She was beginning to feel hopeful that she would escape. And maybe that optimism was making her foolish but she couldn't help herself, not when she was so close to her first real success. 

Slowly she began making her way around the edge of the map, hoping to find a secluded generator to work on and sure enough after a few minutes of searching she saw one. And what's more she saw somebody already working on it. 

"Hey Meg, man am I happy to see you." Wren said as she walked up, almost forgetting the situation they were in after being overwhelmed with relief. 

"Hey newb, surprised to see you still in one piece." Meg said. 

"Yeah, me too. Guess it's a good thing Jake makes such a great distraction." Wren said joining her to work on the gen.

"Only against Mandy." Meg said, not looking up from her work.

"Mandy?" Wren asked.

"Yeah. The Pig's name is Amanda but "Mandy" gets under her skin more." Meg said.

"Does everyone have a death wish against this killer or does it just seem that way?" Wren asked. 

"Hey, you try having you head crushed to pieces and see if you don't want to antagonize her a little. What's she gonna do about it, kill us?" Meg said. 

"That's fair, I guess." Wren said focusing on her work. 

And for a couple of minutes they were quiet only looking away from their work every so often to make sure nothing was creeping up on them. 

"So does she really wear a pig's head?" Wren asked.

"Yeah but I don't think its a real pigs head, otherwise we'd be able to smell her long before we saw her. I think it's just a really realistic mask." Came Meg's response. 

After a few more seconds of working the generator came on and Wren couldn't believe it. She had lasted to the end game. 

"What now?" She asked Meg.

"Well now we need to get one of the doors open. There's one over there." Meg said while pointing.

Wren looked and saw a massive door just a few meters away. 

Then they both heard a woman scream. Claudette had been hooked. 

"Okay here's the plan." Meg said "You go over and get that door open. I'm going to see if I can't save Claude." 

"How exactly do I open the door?" Wren asked. 

"There should be a switch to the left of the door, you're gonna want to pull it down and hold it until the door starts opening. Not gonna lie, it's going to make a lot of noise and will probably attract the killer's attention, so keep an eye on your surroundings. And if you need to run, run. Now we can't waste anymore time. Go." Meg said before disappearing into the foliage.

"Right, right. Pull switch, open door, keep an eye out for a crazy murderess. Easy enough." Wren said to herself.

Wren quickly made her way over to the door and pulled the lever. Meg wasn't kidding when she said this thing was loud. After a few seconds of standing there holding the lever down a horn like sound rang through the arena. Well shit. If the killer didn't know where Wren was before, she sure as hell knew where she was now. 

After a few more seconds Wren felt a lurch coming from the ground and heard the sound of the door finally opening up. She let go of the lever and stood back as she watch the door start opening slowly. She couldn't believe it. She was about to survive a trial. And in that moment she felt for once that her optimism wasn't misplaced.

That is until she heard an entirely different sound. The sound of a twig snapping. How a sound could be so subtle but also so painfully loud was nauseating. But as she turned to face the direction the sound came from, she knew she shouldn't have been surprised to see a pair of inhuman eyes looking at her. But she couldn't help herself. 

Standing before her was a woman, roughly her height wearing a long red coat and what's more a pig's head over her own. 

Wren was so shocked she almost didn't hear the knife slide out of her sleeve. Almost. In her moment of shock Wren had forgotten about the door that was opening behind her. And it wasn't until the masked woman took a step towards her that she bolted. Barely managing to squeeze into the opening that had appeared, Wren ran and didn't look back. Not when she heard another door opening on the other side of the map. Not when the pig headed woman let out a frustrated snarl. And not when she passed the threshold and felt the Entity's pull bringing her back to her own world outside of the trials.

The next time Wren's feet stopped running, she was standing in front of the bonfire, where a few familiar faces gathered. Bill, David, Nea, and Jake were all seated and sharing stories of how their trials had gone that day. 

After Wren had caught her breath she couldn't help but break into a fit of laughter. 

"I did it. I fucking did it. I survived." She said still slightly winded.

"Well I'll be damned." David said, giving her one of his signature shit eating grins. 

"Heard it was Miss Piggy, how'd that go?" Bill asked. 

"It went great, all things considered. No traps, didn't get downed, fucking survived. I feel like I can fight an army of killers." Wren said. 

"Where are the others?" Jake asked.

"They should be right behind me, last I heard they were opening up the other door. Wren said. Finally taking a moment to sit and rest.

"Speak of the devil." David said and pointed behind her.

Wren turned in time to see two of her favorite people run in the clearing that surrounded the campfire.

"Thank God. You two had us worried for a second there." Nea said. "Now come here and tell us what happened." 

Meg started "Okay so I'm assuming Jake told you that we were up against The Pig and how he got chased for half the trail."

Wren started to drown out the conversation and soon became lost in her own thoughts. 

"What about you Wren?"

She only vaguely heard. 

"I wonder what she looks like beneath the mask." Wren said absent minded. 

"What?" Meg asked

"Huh, did you say something?" Wren asked

"I said, how did things go after I left you?" Meg asked again.

"Oh, everything went alright. I didn't end up running into Amanda till the last couple of seconds though." Wren said.

"Amanda? Wow, I didn't realize you two were on a first name basis already. Save some for the rest of us lady killer." Nea said, with a grin.

"That's not what I- Oh forget about it. Anyway, it's been a long day I think I'm gonna head back to my cabin and call it a night." Wren said before getting up and dusting herself off. 

She arrived home a short while later and debated wether or not to go to the showers but decided against it when she realized how exhausted she really was. She fell asleep that night with one thought resting harder on her mind than any other. "What does she look like without the mask?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took so long. I've had it storyboarded for a minute but for some odd reason, I couldn't force my brain to articulate words in a way that I was satisfied with. But it's out now so I hope you guys enjoy.


	5. Faith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter in which Wren makes a friend.

Wren awoke the next morning feeling refreshed. She couldn't help the odd feeling that today was going to be a great day. Well, relatively great that is. Whether her good mood was because she was still riding high on her first victory in the trials or if it was because tomorrow was the weekly rest day for survivors and killers, she didn't know. And she didn't care. What she did know was that she needed to eat something before she got whisked away for another match. After a quick breakfast of eggs and bacon, Wren made one last loop around her home and seeing that everything was in order and that she had everything she would need for the day she decided to head out and start making her way to the bonfire. 

Shortly after arriving, Wren took note of the other survivors that were congregating around the campfire. Meg, Jake, and Laurie sat on one side of the fire chattering away at impressive jukes and near death escapes, while Claudette and Adam sat on the other side of the fire discussing new tactics for healing and saving their friends in the trials.

"You know, if he wasn't so hell bent on killing us, Herman would probably have mountains of notes on this subject." Adam was saying as Wren sat down.

"What are we talking about?" Wren asked.

"Okay, so Claude over here has some ideas for a new and improved kind of healing salve that we could bring into the trials." Adam said. 

"Sounds great, what's the problem?" Came Wren's response.

"The problem is that it's difficult to test these sort of things outside of a trial and trials don't exactly make for the best test runs. There are so many factors working together at any given point in time, that it takes a ridiculous amount of test runs to insure that the salve is actually working as intended. Not to mention that something in the trials or the killer's artillery may have an adverse effect on the salve rendering it either useless or in some cases it may actually work in a completely different, potentially harmful way." Claudette rambled on.

"Which brings me to my point." Adam began. "If testing it is too difficult or taxing, then maybe it would be best to get a second opinion from a trained professional. Even if said professional isn't exactly the most cooperative, it's at least worth a try." Adam finished. 

"Uncooperative is an understatement, if things go south I'm dead. Very literally, dead." Claudette was saying. 

Wren was so caught up in the conversation that was happening beside her that she didn't notice the fog starting to engulf her until it was too late. One second she was at the campfire, the next she was also at the campfire but a different one. 

It took her a second to register what had happened but when she looked around she saw a few familiar faces starting to materialize. She saw Kate appear first clearly dishelved, quickly followed by Laurie, and finally Adam appeared by her side. 

"So, did I miss anything?" She asked Adam.

"No. Nothing of any significance at least." Adam said with a sigh.

"Right." Came Wren's response.

"So who do you think it'll be this time?" Kate asked, while gathering a toolbox.

"Who knows, so long as it isn't Michael everything will be a-okay." Laurie answered.

Myers. Wren had heard terrible things about him. Worse than most killers, which really said something all things considered. She was lucky enough to have not gone up against him yet, but she knew her luck couldn't last forever. Especially when the concept of 'forever' was a very real thing in the Entity's realm. 

"Okay so, Adam you're on saves. Kate and Wren you guys are on gens. I'll be the distraction if and when I need to be. And doors are the responsibility of whoever is closest or whoever has been hooked the least." Laurie said. "Any questions, comments, or concerns?" She asked.

After a brief moment of silence, everyone began to brace themselves for what was coming next. And before long the world started to spiral around Wren as the fog slowly started to reclaim her. For a brief second she felt like she was floating in the darkness. In that moment the feeling of weightlessness was almost pleasant and then all too quickly Wren was roughly deposited on the ground. 

After taking a second to allow the world to stop turning, Wren looked around for any clue as to where she might be. And it didn't take long for her to figure it out as she sank ankle deep into mud. They got dumped into Blackwater Swamp. Lovely.  
This was easily Wren's least favorite map, with the smell of dead and rotting fish and the unyielding sludge that she had to trudge through to do even the most basic of things. 

Still though, Wren had to find a generator and get to work if only to get out of this shit hole sooner. Another quick glance around led Wren to spot the tell tale blinking lights of a generator a few meters to her right. And slowly but surely she started making her way over to it. After a few seconds that felt more like hours, Wren finally reached the gen and began working. 

She glanced around as she worked, having learned to look for every possible escape route while she had the time. She had the killer shack right behind her and a pallet nestled in between some rocks directly to her left. Two escape routes should she need them. This was good. 

While Wren didn't like how out in the open this generator was, it offered her a fairly decent vantage point. She could see clear across a good amount of the trial grounds. Despite this however, Wren still hadn't managed to spot the killer yet. Her conversation with Jake from the day prior was playing in here head on repeat.

"It's when you can't see it that it becomes problematic." He had said.

What are the odds, Wren began thinking to herself, that it would be 'her' again? 

Her train of thought was disrupted by the sound of a generator coming to life on the far side of the map. That's good she thought. One down, four more to go. 

"That should distract them for a while." Wren said to herself.

"Yeah maybe." Came a masculine voice just to her right.

"Yeah, hopefully." Wren said with a nervous chuckle. 

Wait. That wasn't Adam. And the other two people with her were- 

Wren turned around so abruptly she was surprised her ankles didn't snap. 

Crouching right beside her was none other than Ghostface. 

"Oh, hey Jed. How are ya doing'?" Wren asked.

"Eh, you know the usual. Stabbing somebody here. Hooking somebody there. Same ol' same ol'. You know how it is." Jed said.

"Yeah, tell me about." Wren said. 

Jed was one of Wren's favorite killers, which in hindsight is a really weird thing to say. Her first trial with him was unlike any she had had prior. She was the last person alive in said trial and it wasn't long before she was downed by Ghostface. Afterwards however he took his time getting her to a hook. Cracking jokes the entire way. At the time Wren had been so baffled she had forgot to stuggle until a hook was placed through her shoulder. And even then the killer stuck around and spoke with her while she was on the hook. She found out his name was Jed and they started going back and forth with cheesy jokes until her world faded into blackness. Afterwards Wren had appeared back at the bonfire laughing at one of Jed's jokes. It was probably her fondest memory since she arrived here. Which, again, is really weird.

Suffice to say she should have been surprised to have a killer only an arms length away from her, but she wasn't.

"So." Jed began. "I'm thinking, maybe a ten second head start." Jed said.

"Bet I can lose you in five." Wren said through a laugh. 

"Deal." Jed said and extented a hand for Wren to shake. 

Wren looked at the outstretched hand with hesitation.

"Come on Wren. Have a little faith." Jeb said.

After another tentative second, Wren met the outstretched hand with her own. Only for Jeb to tighten his grip on her. 

"5"

"Oh that's cheap." Wren said, while ultimately being unable to maintain a straight face.

"4"

"And to think, I had so much faith."

"3"

"..."

"Really. Nothin' else to say about it?" 

"I trusted you."

"A terrible idea, really."

"2"

"Fuckin' cheater."

"1"

And with that Wren was slung over Jed's shoulder and they were on their way to the nearest hook.

After a few short quips and jokes between the two of then, Wren was placed rather abruptly on a hook. And as her screams died down she was able to take one last jab at Jed.

"Couldn't be a little more gentle?" She asked.

"I don't know from experience, but I imagine getting hooked is like ripping a band-aid off. Quick and clean." He said before walking away.

"Yeah, that seems fair." Wren said to no one in particular.

It couldn't have been more than a couple of minutes before she was being pulled off the hook, but fuck did time slow down when every nerve in your body was on fire. When her vision finally came into focus she was staring into the concerned eyes of Adam. 

"Hey, thanks." She said.

"I wouldn't thank me just yet. From the looks of it, I'd say your next hook is your last hook. Now come here, let's see if I can't get you patched up." He said, concern still evident in his voice.

"So how's everything else going?" Wren asked while she had a moment. 

"Well, it's definitely gone better but it's also definitely gone worse." He said while he continued to bandage Wren's shoulder.

"We've gotten another gen done, but you and Kate are on your last hooks already. So, if we want to get out we're gonna have to start going about things a lot more carefully." Adam said.

As Adam finished patching Wren up another scream rang out through the arena.

"Is it bad that I kinda want that to be Laurie?" Wren asked.

"It's a necessary evil." Came the somber response. 

"Time to divide and conquer then, I guess." Wren said quietly.

"Yeah, I guess it is." Adam said.

The rest of the match was relatively uneventful for Wren. She finished the generator she had started earlier and had been slowly been making her way around the outskirts of the map. As luck would have it, it was Kate that had been hooked earlier. Meaning that it was down to three people, more realistically two and a half. Adam had gone down since they parted ways and gotten himself hooked. Luckily he was able to get himself off of said hook. Which left Laurie as the only survivor that was actually able to do much of anything amongst the chaos.

There were two more gens that needed to be finished. Of the four generators that were still remaining three of them were painfully close to one another and the fourth was out in the open. Seeing that her options were either bad or worse Wren took a second to stop and assess the situation. In her moment of reprieve, Wren failed to notice someone crouching up to her. 

"Hey stranger."

Wren turned to see Jeb crouched right beside her and dispite the stunt that he pulled earlier, Wren couldn't find it in her to be upset with him.

"Hey stranger." She said back to him.

"So what do you see?" Jeb asked.

Despite him playing for the other team, so to speak, he sounded genuinely curious so after a moment of hesitation and after something caught her eye on the far side of the map, Wren relented. 

"Okay so look. We have four gens left, those three over there" she pointed "And that one right there." She pointed again towards the other more precarious gen.

"Those three are close enough that they could easily be monitored in a short amount of time, way too little time for us to be able to get in and get a decent amount of work done without being caught. And that gen down there is located in what we call a 'dead zone' meaning that it is EXTREMELY unsafe. No pallets, no windows, and no jungle gyms. In other words, it's a death trap. So we are in a very sticky situation. If we do one of those three, then there is less to monitor on your end. And the other one is just too exposed to be a viable option." Wren finished.

"So to paraphrase, you're fucked." Jeb asked.

"Yes. That does seem to be a fitting observation." Wren said. 

"Right, so do you want to make this easy for the both of us? Or do you want to die tired?" Jeb asked.

"Ya know, I think I'll take you up on that ten second headstart." Wren said. 

And before Jeb even had time to answer, she was off. Running for the far side of the map. Away from the generators away from Jeb. She needed to get to the shack. She didn't have to look behind her to know that he would be following. He enjoyed this game of cat and mouse too much. 

She made it to the shack with plenty of time and space to turn around and see that Jeb was still several meters away. He didn't seem to be in any real sort of rush. And that was fine with Wren, it gave her more than enough time to get into a more practical position. Inside the shack, with a pallet in between her and Jeb. There she waited. Waited for him to get closer. And when he was just a few feet away, Wren slowly lowered the pallet so that it was blocking the doorway. 

"Really? This is your hail Mary? Your last hurrah? Damn kid, I thought you were smart enough to not get yourself cornered. Guess I was wrong." Jeb said. 

"Come on Jeb. Have a little faith." Wren said, hardly able to contain the smirk that was trying to betray her.

"If you insist Princess." Jeb said as he brought his foot up to break the pallet.

"Princess my ass." Wren said, before taking off to the other end of the shack. 

*whack* *whack*

Wren didn't have to turn around to know that the pallet was in shambles. She had to remain focused on the task at hand. She ran Jeb around and through the shack four times before he finally landed a hit on her. But she still persisted. Round and round the shack she went. 

"Come on Wren, aren't you getting tired of this?" She heard Jeb ask. 

Truth be told Wren was getting tired. They had been going at this for a few minutes now, but she wasn't ready to give up just yet. After another lap around the shack Wren jumped through the window and waited. On the other side she saw Jeb inside the shack closing the distance between them. And then she heard it. 

The sound of a generator coming to life caused Jeb to stop in his tracks and look towards the noise. And not a moment too soon, because the moment he turned around the sound of a second gen powering up rang through the trial grounds.

Jeb just stood there, like he was stuck in time. At this Wren couldn't contain herself anymore and she start laughing. This seemed to snap Jeb out of his trance however. 

"What are you laughing at Princess?" He asked.

Wren managed to contain her laughter long enough to explain. 

"Looks like you're going to have to choose Jeb. They'll go to opposite doors, so it doesn't matter which one you go to. One way or another someone is getting out." Wren said.

"What's it matter if one of them gets it out?" Jeb asked her. 

"It doesn't matter, honestly I don't care. What I do care about is that I took an impossible situation and made it work. Isn't that funny?" Wren asked feeling her laughter coming back at the thought of it. She had outsmarted the game.

Surprisingly enough, Jeb started joining in on the laughter. 

"That is pretty funny." Jeb said "It's a shame that I'm still gonna kill you though." 

"Nah, I knew where this rabbit hole led to the second I jumped in. I'm just happy they were able to make the most of it." Wren said, having finally recovered.

"Alright, come here." Jeb said. 

And oddly enough, Wren obeyed. She willingly walked back into the killer shack. She willing walked down to the basement. She willingly let Jeb pick her up. And she screamed like a motherfucker when she got hooked. But it was still worth it when she heard the sound of not one but two doors opening as she was pulled away by the Entity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had an entirely different idea for where I wanted this chapter to go, but I was enjoying writing Ghostface so much that before I knew it there was an entire chapter dedicated to his character. Oh well. To spare you guys from a ridiculously long chapter, I decided to break the original concept into two parts. The next chapter will be coming shortly. 
> 
> Until then, enjoy!


	6. Rise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter in which Wren has a near death encounter and isn't completely oblivious to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little plot building here, a little foreshadowing there. Everything is coming together nicely. Now watch me fuck it all up.

It had been a rather eventful day for Wren. After her match with Jeb she had been faced with the Wraith, the Nurse, and the Hag. Despite none of them being stealth killers, they all managed to scare her more than Jeb ever had. Most of her matches ended with Wren being sacrificed. Aside from her match with the Wraith. For God knows what reason, he had seen fit to let her escape relatively unscathed. 

Safe to say, Wren was beyond worn out. Luckily her day was finally winding down to an end and she was finally free to get a headstart on her rest day. And with that thought in mind Wren materialized back at the campfire for that last time that day. 

"How'd it go?" Bill asked.

"Hag. Not friendly." Came Wren's response.

"Yeah, I suppose not." Bill said. "How long do you think before the others show up?" He asked.

"Had three gens done before I got got. Hard to say how much longer. Maybe twenty or so minutes." Wren said. 

She had been in her last match of the day with Jake, Feng, and Dwight. All of which were much better equipped to handle the Hag's tricks than she was. Wren couldn't think much on it though. Her body was starting to feel the exhaustion of the days events settling into her bones. But she still had some things she needed to do before calling it quits for the night. Namely taking a shower. 

Her boots and clothes were still caked with mud from her first match of the day. Between the grime and the smell, Wren had been so distracted she hadn't been able to do much in the way of being productive throughout the trials. But fuck it. She was done for the day and her number one goal right now was to get clean. 

With this thought in mind, Wren started making her way away from the warmth of the campfire and towards her cabin to gather her cleaning supplies. After getting the things she needed from her home, Wren started making her way towards the bathhouse. When it finally made it's way into her view, Wren damn near started crying. Never had anything looked so beautiful in Wren's eyes. 

When Wren finally made it to the bathhouse she made short work of shedding her clothes from the day. Hardly caring if anyone was there to see her in all her naked glory. In that moment all she cared about was being free of the god awful grime that had made stained her clothes and skin with it's distinct aroma. 

Wren probably stood under the water for a solid thirty minutes before she even began actually cleaning herself. She just wanted to let the scalding hot water wash away all her troubles and worries from the day. And it was working pretty well. When Wren did finally get around to actually cleaning herself, it only took her a few minutes to clean her hair and body. Finishing at her legs, which had recieved the worst treatment throughout the day. 

After she finished, she turned the shower off and changed into the spare set of clothes that she had brought with her. Now to brush her teeth and if the entity would allow it, maybe go for a soak in the hot spring. That was the plan, until Wren noticed two other women at the sinks. They must have snuck in while Wren was lost in thought earlier. 

Oh well, no problem. The plan still stood. Teeth, hot spring, home, then rest day. Wren gathered her supplies and made her way over to the sinks.  
She spared a look over at the other women as she did this. 

She recognized these two from her first trip to the bathhouse. The tall, buff, brunette woman and the shorter, more tired looking, ravenette. Then a thought came to her as she started brushing her teeth. Wren had been here for a while now. She had met most of the survivors, talked with them almost daily, and gone through trials with them. Then another thought came to Wren, more of a memory really.

"Let's just hope you don't run into.."

Wait. WAIT. Wren had met most of the survivors, but these two couldn't be new. Wren had seen them before, they had probably been here longer than she had. So why..

"Hey"

Wren was shocked out of her train of thought when one of the women spoke to her.

"Oh, hey." Wren said.

"Don't you know it's rude to stare at people, especially in a bathhouse of all places?" The woman said. 

It was the shorter girl that had approached her.

"Right. Sorry. I didn't realize I was starring." Wren said, suddenly realizing that she had been looking at them non-stop as her brain was trying to make sense of everything that was going on. 

"Right. Just tone in down a little, you'll give Anna ideas and she is particularly fond of little girls like you." The woman said.

"Sorry it won't happen again." Wren said, looking behind the shorter woman and seeing that her taller friend was watching thier interaction from a short distance away. The taller woman was looking at Wren with an almost predatory stare. It gave Wren chills, even though she wasn't really worried about anything happening between other survivors. 

'Unless they aren't survivors.' 

The thought came to her abruptly and she looked away from both women and went back to brushing her teeth. What a ridiculous thought. Of course they were other survivors. The entity wouldn't allow survivors and killers to interact outside of trials. That would be an accident just waiting to happen. Right?

So why couldn't Wren get that thought out of her head? Why did it make so much sense? Wren finished what she was doing and packed her supplies in a bit of a rush.

'I guess the hot spring will have to wait for another time.' 

Wren thought to herself. Despite trying to reason with herself about what was going on, Wren couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. She could at least ask the others about it before jumping to conclusions. But things were starting to make a little too much sense in her head. 

After Wren headed out, she decided to go back to her cabin and call it a day. Her questions could wait until tomorrow. Right now she just wanted to get some sleep. But as she got closer to her cabin, she could make out voices coming from the campfire. One voice in particular stood out. Nea. 

Fuck it. Sleep could wait. Wren opened her cabin door and threw her cleaning supplies just inside of the door before turning around and making her way over to the campfire. As Wren got nearer and the silhouettes in the distance started taking shape and she could make out several people gathered at the bonfire. Bill, David, Laurie, Kate, Claudette, Meg, and of course Nea. 

"So." Wren started as she walked up to everybody.  
"Was I just supposed to find out that we share the bathhouse with the killers on my own or did you guys just forget to tell me about that part?" Wren said.

"Okay. So don't get mad, but Meg and I kind of had a bet." Nea started.

"A bet?" Wren asked.

"Yeah, a bet to see how long it would take you to notice." Meg finished. 

"A bet?" Wren asked again, still not comprehending how these two could be so laid back about what she was asking them.

"Yes Wren, a bet." Nea repeated, starting to sound exasperated. 

"What if something would have happened?" Wren asked. 

"Okay listen. Outside of the trials the killers, for the most part, are relatively passive around survivors. You don't mess with them, they don't mess with you. It's a nice little truce between our two groups." Meg said. 

"We didn't tell you because we knew they weren't going to hurt you, also because we couldn't afford to have another Quentin situation." Nea said.

"Quentin situation?" Wren asked.

"Yeah, we made the mistake of telling Quentin about the whole bathing ordeal his first week here and he didn't bathe for two months." Claudette said. 

"Wait. Claudette you were in on it too?" Wren asked. She couldn't believe it. Not sweet innocent Claudette.

"Well, yes and no. I didn't take part in the betting but I knew that it was happening. Everyone did." Claudette said. 

"Wait. So if we actually do share the bathhouse with the killers, who the fuck was I just in there with?" Wren asked.

"I don't know, what'd they look like?" Nea asked.

"Well, one was really tall and buff.."

"Huntress." Meg interrupted.

"Oh. OH." Wren said. "That might explain some things, but who was the other woman than? Roughly my height, black hair, looked like she hadn't slept in weeks?" Wren asked.

"Fuckin' hell, that would be Mandy." Nea said through a grin.

"Mandy? Oh, Mandy. Right." Wren said.

"I still can't believe you guys, but I'm too tired to deal with it right now. I'm going to bed" Wren said. Even though the shock of the situation was wearing off slowly she still felt mentally and physically exhausted from the days events.

Wren turned to make her way back to her cabin, only to stop a couple feet from the campfire. Turning around Wren asked one last thing. 

"So who won the bet?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pretty short and I'm sorry for that. But if it makes you feel any better, the next chapter is going to be a loooong boi.


	7. Gravity: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter in which a decision is made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took so long guys. But fuck it, we're picking right back up with a 3 part chapter. So buckle up fucko's, cause we're all in for a bumpy ride.

Wren's day off came and went faster than she would have imagined possible. She hadn't done much aside from cooking, cleaning up some of the mess that had accumulated over the last week, and finally sitting down with a hot cup of tea and a book to wind down. What started as just reading for a couple of chapters ended up being reading the whole book in one sitting. And as Wren closed her book she couldn't help but let out a yawn. 

"How long have I been reading?" She asked no one in particular.

But she could feel that is was getting fairly late into the evening. As she stood from her spot on the couch she felt several of her bones pop. 

"Shit. I've definitely been here for a while." Again this comment wasn't directed at anyone.

Wren took her cup into the kitchen then made her way upstairs. As she was getting ready for bed, Wren made a move to take of her jewelry. Namely the ring her mother gave to Wren on her deathbed. 

It was a miracle in and of itself that the ring made it in here with her. But the other survivors explained that some belongings that held significant personal value managed to come along with them into this realm. It was one of the few things she was grateful for. Given her current situation, it could be much worse. 

So when she reached for her mother's ring only to find that it wasn't in it's usual spot she felt her heart sink. What was once a calming atmosphere quickly turned into one of panic. Wren stopped for a short moment to gather her thoughts. Where was the last place she had seen it? 

She thought back to her trials from the day prior and for a moment feared that it may have slipped off during one of them. Only to stop short, she remembered having it when she went to bathe. She always took special care to take it off and set it away from her while she brushed her teeth. Always terrified that it would fall down the drain.

Wren had had it in the bathhouse. Wren hoped with all her might that she had uncharacteristically put the ring in one of her pockets. With that thought and that thought alone racing through her mind, Wren went to find her clothes from the day before. It didn't take long to locate them thrown in a corner and made to be a different day's problem as they were still caked with mud. Wren searched the pockets and came up empty handed then searched them once again for good measure. 

Her ring. Her mother's ring. It was gone.

What was once a mild panic quickly turned into something more. But Wren couldn't allow herself to despair. She had one last hope. Maybe the ring was still where she had left it in the bathhouse. 

As tired as she was, Wren practically ran down the stairs leading down from her loft and threw on a pair of shoes. She was out of her cabin and on her way to the bathhouse in mere seconds. It had to be there. What would she do if it wasn't. 

Wren ran for most of the trip. Only stopping when the bathhouse became visible. Wren took a short moment to calm her nerves and collect herself before entering. 

Wren had been expecting this visit to be quick and easy. Get in. See if the ring was there. Get out. What she didn't expect, was to be greeted by a familiar figure sitting on the edge of the sink. In her haste to find the ring, Wren managed to forget some information that only a day prior had rocked her world. 

Perched on the edge of the sink was none other than a very bored looking ravenette. Wren recognized her immediately, and what's more, she recognized a particular ring being flipped lazily between the ravenette's fingers. 

"You took your time." The woman said, barely offering Wren a glance. 

Wren's mind was racing yet again. Her earlier attempts to calm herself were wasted as she stood here in front of one of the beings whose sole purpose was to kill her. As she stood silently taking in the situation, Wren couldn't help but think of all the ways this could go wrong. She quickly did a once over of the bathhouse, mapping out her best escape routes. 

"Yeah. I'll get straight to business, before you start running" The woman said. She must have seen Wren's reaction. 

"I'm not here to hurt you. She said. 

"What?" Wren asked. Surprise outweighing reason for a moment. 

" I'm not here to hurt you." The woman repeated, clearly starting to lose patience. 

"But I have something that you want and you have something that I want." The woman continued. 

"I don't have anything of yours." Wren said. Rarely taking her eyes off of the woman. 

She still didn't trust anything she was being told. She didn't trust that this woman wouldn't be at her throat in a second. And she sure as hell didn't trust that this woman didn't have some weapon concealed on her person. 

"That's not really the type of something I'm talking about." The woman said. "It's more like I need a favor." 

Wren didn't like where this was going. She couldn't think of a single outcome to this 'favor' that could be pleasant. But she couldn't stop herself from asking. 

"What kind of favor?"

This seemed to catch the woman's attention. 

"I need help testing a new piece of equipment." The woman said. "You help me run some tests and you can have your ring back." 

Wren felt the air rush out of her lungs. She knew what she was being asked to do. She knew what awaited her if she agreed and what awaited her if she disagreed. Wren took a short while to think. No rational person would even humor the idea of forgoing what was being asked of her over a piece of jewelry, regardless of sentimental value. 

After a short while of deliberation, Wren made her choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 will be up soon. I swear it.


	8. As A Mouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's quiet. Too quiet.

She had told her no. Straight to her face. It was odd. The pig's reaction that is. How she managed to transition between a look of surprise, anger and understanding all within the span of a second was beyond Wren. 

Wren could understand the anger but the other emotions baffled her. Obviously Wren wouldn't willingly endanger herself over a piece of jewelry, regardless of how much sentimental value it held. That would be ludicrous. Right?

So why couldn't she come to terms with the fact that it was gone. She wasn't getting it back. Wren didn't have a death wish. Did she? 

It had been hours since Wren had returned to her cabin. She had gone straight to bed after returning, hoping that sleep would offer her some sort of distraction. Yet as she lay there, sleep was unable to find her. 

Her head was filled with 'maybes' and 'what-ifs'. And while they were distracting, they were distracting in the wrong way. 

It began as a simple, 'what if she leaves it at Gideon's when she goes into a trial?' An innocent enough thought. And quickly turned into, 'maybe I can sneak in and find it while she's in a trial.'

After so long of laying there thinking to herself, Wren began to see black wisps coming in and out of her peripheral view. Sure enough when she sat up she found that she was quickly becoming consumed by the fog. Had she really been up all night thinking about hypothetical scenarios. 

She didn't have much time to ponder to herself before the world began spinning out of focus then abruptly righting itself as she landed on her feet. 

A quick glance at her surroundings told her she was at Lery's. That wasn't too bad. Lots of places to hide. Wren could do with an easy match. Running on no sleep was bound to make today either very eventful or very anticlimactic. 

Wren took a knee after a moment and began debating her options. She could stick to the gens in the hallways until she knew who the killer was. Long lines of sight would make sneaking up on her pretty difficult if it was a silent killer. But that worked both ways. She would be much easier to spot. 

Or she could find a gen in one of the rooms to begin working on. Not so many lines of sight that way. Would make an ambush easier but would also make a getaway easier if she had a warning that the killer was on their way. 

After another moment of contemplating her options, Wren decided her best bet would be to remain hidden. Today was not the day to be taking any unnecessary risks and making herself an easy to spot target wouldn't be doing her fellow survivors any favors.

She made her way into the nearest room and to her dismay found that there wasn't a generator in it to be worked on. Of course not. Most of the gens would be closer towards the center of the map. Forcing the survivors and killer into a smaller space surely provided more entertainment for the Entity.

Despite her better judgement, Wren began making her way toward the center of the hospital. One way or another she was going to get this trial done and over with. 

She had passed through a couple more rooms and aside from not having run into the killer, she was having little luck. Before long however, she began to hear the tell-tale signs of a generator being worked on. Passing through one of the doorways she saw a gen in the middle of a four way intersectecting hallway and a middle aged man working on it. 

"Tapp, it's good to see you." Wren said quietly as she approached the man and began helping him with his gen. 

"Good to see you too recruit." Tapp said just as quietly. 

Wren wrinkled her nose at the nickname but couldn't help giving him a mock salute. 

"So do you know who it is yet?" Wren asked. Quickly stipping a couple of wires and situating them so that they fit into their proper places. 

"I don't know. I thought I saw someone duck into one of the rooms on the far end of the hall. I didn't get a good look at them thought only barely saw them outta the corner of my eye. Haven't heard anything yet and that is rarely a good thing." Tapp said looking up from his work every few seconds to check his surroundings. 

It wasn't long before the two of them had the generator up and running. They had parted ways looking around themselves skeptically. 

They had been completely uninterrupted. They hadn't heard anything. No survivors, no heartbeat, no chainsaws, screeches, or otherworldly growls. 

Nothing. 

Something was wrong. Wren couldn't place exactly what it was, but something was definitely wrong. Wren began making a beeline for the very center of the map. One way or another she was going to find out who the killer was. The suspense was going to kill her soon even if the killer didn't. 

As she entered the observation area in the center she was relieved to see that someone had started working on the generator. Her relief was short lived however when she approached the gen only to find it abandoned. That was odd. 

Wren didn't have long to ponder to herself what had happened as the sound of another generator coming to life across the hospital scared her half to death. She decided shortly after, that wondering what had happened wasn't going to get them out of this trial any faster so she began picking up where the last survivor had left off with their work.

Whoever had started had gotten one set of the pistons going before they had left and within a few minutes Wren had the gen roughly halfway done. That's when she heard a bone chilling scream pierce through the relative silence. Wren thought she recognized the voice as Dwight but she had never heard him scream quite like that. 

A few seconds later Wren heard a boom and felt the shockwave resonate through the trial grounds. 

"That's odd" she said to herself.

Normally that sound signalled that a survivor had been sacrificed. But nobody had even been hooked yet. From how the others had explained it to her, even when the killers had a mori they had to hook a survivor at least once before they could actually kill them with their bare hands. 

Wren had gotten back to work but was shaken from her stupor as she heard another scream sound off much closer to her this time. Feminine this time, though she couldn't place who exactly it was. Wren began moving away from the generator she had been working on as quickly as she could without leaving any traces that she had been here.

She made her way over to the staircase hoping to get a better view of what was happening from the second floor. But she hardly made it up the first couple of steps before she heard another boom and felt the second shockwave hit her. What the hell she thought to herself.

Something was wrong. 

Something was very wrong.

She began climbing the stairs again hoping to put some distance between herself and whatever just killed the other survivors. As she cleared the staircase she saw a bench on the upstairs landing and a hole on the floor behind it that she could use to jump down and get a headstart should the killer find her up here. 

Her train of thought was abruptly interrupted, however, as she felt an arm wrap around her midsection and pull her backwards. She landed on her ass and hardly had time to get a word out in her panic before a hand clamped down over her mouth to silence her. She began struggling in an attempt to break free of the grip that was holding her in place before she started to hear a quiet voice shushing her. 

She recognized that voice and as she started to calm down she felt the grip around her loosen. She regained her composure and turned to face Tapp. 

"What are you doing?" She asked incredulously.

"I know who the killer is." Tapp said quietly, ignoring the question Wren had asked. "It's Myers." He continued.

Wren recognized that name. She had heard more horror stories about him than any other killer. She had managed to avoid him in trials thus far but her luck had to run out eventually she supposed. And of course it would be today of all days. 

"What do we do about that." Wren asked.

Tapp sat quietly for a moment, deep in thought. Then he said something that didn't improve Wren's optimism. 

"I'm not gonna lie to you recruit. I've seen him like this a few times by now. If he so much as touches you, you're dead. There is no struggling, hooking, even a decisive strike won't save you. Best case scenario only one us makes it out alive." Tapp said.

"That doesn't sound very reassuring." Wren said.

"It's not supposed to be. Now I had a gen nearly done in the library before I spotted him and made a run for it. Now I'm gonna make my way back there and see if I can't get it finished. You are gonna have to wait for an opening and get back down there and finish that gen." He said, pointing towards the stairs. "If that works out and we get both the gens up and going the hatch will spawn. Whoever finds it first gets it while the other pulls Myers as far away as they can. Sound like a plan?" Tapp finished.

Wren sat for a moment thinking. "Are you sure there's no way for both of us to get out?" She asked.

"I didn't see anyone with a key, and I don't think I've ever seen more than one person make it out against Myers when he's like this without one." Tapp said, a grim look washing over his features at the thought.

"Okay then, I guess this is the best plan we've got." Wren said. 

"I guess it is." Tapp said. 

After one last look between the two and an underlying understanding that this was going to be the last time they saw each other during this ordeal, Tapp made his way to one staircase and Wren made her way to the other. They both decended going opposite directions, knowing what their part to play in this trial was. 

As Wren reached the ground floor she felt a wave of dread wash over her, like upstairs had been a safe haven. Even though it clearly was not. Wren started walking back to the gen she had been working on and continued her work. 

While her work had slowed down considerably, now that she knew the danger she was in and kept glancing away from her work in paranoia, she was making progress. Before too long Wren had the third set of pistons chugging away and the forth set moving sluggishly but surely.

It wouldn't be much longer now she thought to herself and like clockwork she heard the sound of a third generator powering on. Wren felt a temporary breath of relief before she was reminded that their survival depended entirely on her now. Though she was beginning to feel the pressure, Wren couldn't afford to fuck up. 

A couple more minutes passed and Wren had nearly finished her work. One or two more wires and she'd be on her way. Wren was starting to feel hopeful. 

That is, until she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Looking up from her crouched position at the gen, Wren had a clear view into one of the rooms across from the observation area via the window. And somebody else had a clear view of her from the very same window. 

A man stood there, well over six feet tall, wearing coveralls and wielding a knife that seemed impossibly big compared to the already large man. That in itself would have been enough to make Wren shit herself on a normal day, but to top it all off the man wore an expressionless white mask with fake hair. 

Wren could feel her fight or flight instincts taking over and slowly stood from her crouched position. Only then did the man make a move towards her and Wren nearly took off running only to stop. 

She had one wire left. One more. Before she could think to much on it Wren crouched down again and moved two wires together frantically and to her disbelief she heard the generator spring to life. 

She stood, feeling a stupid grin spreading on her face. She did it. But before for she could celebrate any further, she felt herself being turned around and a hand hoisting her up by her throat. 

Oh right, killer. 

And in that moment Wren didn't know what took over her, maybe her sleep deprivation was finally catching up to her, but she couldn't stop herself from laughing as she looked this man in what she hoped was his eyes and promptly telling him to 'go fuck himself'. 

Safe to say, she also forgot about the impossibly large knife that quickly made itself at home in her ribcage. Wren thought she knew pain, she had been stabbed, slashed, smacked, hell she had even been bit. But for some reason, this felt so much worse that anything else she had experienced thus far. 

This felt like pure unadulterated hate. And honestly Wren was starting to harbor a similar hatred for the man responsible. 

It wasn't long before Wren was tossed to the side and left to die and in her last couple of seconds she prayed that she had bought Tapp enough time. Not only because he was her teammate but also out of spite. As her world started to fade to black she felt oddly at peace. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I know this should be Gravity Part 2, but I needed just a little bit more background building so that the next chapter can run and flow as smoothly as possible. Next is absolutely Gravity Part 2. I'm feeling particularly well motivated right now. So y'all might get a double upload to make up for my painfully inconsistent uploads.


	9. Gravity: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for some wheels to start turning.

Wren awoke in her bed, the same as she had been before her trial. She tried sitting up only to lay back down again at the feeling of a phantom pain in her stomach. After a couple of seconds of laying there she decided to try again. Luckily on her second try she was more successful. 

After a short pause, Wren hurriedly ran down stairs and made her way to her front door right to where she had left her boots after she had gotten home last night. After slipping them on, she made her way outside and towards the campfire. 

She wanted to see if Tapp had made it out alive. No, she needed to see him make it out alive. Before she could even get to the bonfire she was greeted by sounds of excitement. She wasn't sure what had happened but she was inexplicably curious. 

A few seconds later she walked up to the campfire only to find it surrounded by survivors. This was the most survivors Wren had seen all in one place. It was oddly nice to see so many familiar faces. 

As she grew nearer somebody along the edge of the group noticed her and called out "Here she comes guys."

And to her dismay she saw more than half a dozen survivors turn to look at her and even more peeking around them to get a look at her. 

"Well get over here. We wanna hear all about it." She heard Feng say. 

"You wanna hear about what?" Wren asked stepping closer, still not sure what got everyone so excited. That is until the crowd parted and she saw none other than one Detective David Tapp sitting on a log across from where she was at. 

"You got out?" Wren asked. Hardly containing her own excitment. As people cleared a spot for her to sit. 

"I got out." Tapp said. "I was just telling everybody here about your heroics." 

"My heroics?" Wren asked.

"Yup, how you stared that man down, finished a gen in his face, then told him to go fuck himself." Tapp finished.

"You saw that?" Wren asked.

"Saw it?? I was watching from the next room over, nearly pissed myself laughing." Tapp said. "I don't think anyone has had the balls to do that their first time against Michael, yet. Let alone, instant death Michael." Tapp finished.

"Instant death?" Wren asked.

"Yeah, Michael has this thing where he can go straight to killing you sometimes." Meg said. She was sitting on a log just to Wren's left. 

"Right, I'm glad you made it out alive Tapp, but I really just came down here to check on you." Wren said. Standing from her seated position. 

"Hey where ya going? Aren't you gonna stick around and tell everyone about it? Tapp asked.

"I don't think so. I didn't really sleep last night, so I'm gonna go home and try to take a nap before my next trial." Wren said. 

"Well alright, sweet dreams and thanks for checkin' in and y'know, helping me get out back there." Tapp said.

"Eh, it was nothing." Wren said turning to leave. 

As Wren made her way back home she was finally able to take a breather for a second. She hadn't realized how much that last trial had taken out of her mentally. She was used to being pushed physically by these trials, but this was an entirely different kind of pushing and she wasn't sure she liked it. 

Wren had no sooner opened her front door and kicked her boots off just inside of it, before she fell face first onto her couch. The bed may be comfier, but there were so many stairs between her and it. The couch would do just fine for a nap. As she lay there, Wren could feel herself beginning to drift away when a soft knock at her front door jolted her awake. 

As Wren forced herself out of her perfectly comfortable position on the couch, she wondered who of all the people she knew, could be at her door. And as she opened her door she was shocked to find that it was none of the people she had even considered. 

Standing at her front door was one of the scrawniest most timid men Wren had ever met. Quentin, constantly looked like he was on the verge of passing out. Whether that was from exaustion, stress, or one of many other things, Wren didn't know. And as rude as it sounded, she also didn't care right now. She was on the verge of nearly passing out herself. 

"What do you need Quen?" Wren asked.

"I was at the campfire just now, heard you didn't sleep well last night. I just wanted to check in and make sure nobody was messing with you while you slept." Quentin say quietly. 

If anybody else had come to her door and said something so strange, Wren would've probably slammed her door in their face. But seeing as she knew Quentin and knew who he was talking about and knew why he was so concerned, Wren decided to humor him. 

"No no bud, that wasn't why I couldn't sleep." Wren said. "I just had a lot on my mind. Ya know?"

"Yeah, I know." Quentin said. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Wren thought for a moment before she decided.

"Why the hell not? Uh, long story short, I have..had a ring that was given to me by somebody that I cared about long before I came here. I accidentally misplaced it a couple days ago and one of the killers got ahold of it. Now they want me to help them with something that can in no way, shape, or form end in any other way aside from me dying a very drawn out and undoubtedly painful death." Wren finished, looking up to Quentin to gauge his reaction. 

Quentin looked confused but thoughtful for a second before he started. "Okay, so there's a lot to unpack there. Let's start with who it actually is that took your ring."

"It was Amanda." Wren said.

At that Quentin visibly paled which, considering how pale he already was, was saying something. 

"Right so I might not be the best person to help you with this, but I think I know who is. I'll go talk to them and you can meet up after you're finished with your trials for the day. I'll let you get back to your nap now." Quentin said after a short pause, before turning and walking back in the direction of the campfire. 

Before he could get too far Wren called after him.

"So who is this expert that I should be expecting?" Wren asked.

"Uh the experts, plural, are Jake and Tapp." Quentin said before continuing on his way. 

And with that Wren was left with more questions. Jake she could get, why would Tapp know anything about the Pig? These questions are what filled Wren's head as she once again laid down and began drifting off to sleep. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It wasn't long before Wren was being pulled into another trial. She had managed to get a maybe an hour or so of sleep by her estimation before hand though. Hopefully that would be enough to help her power through whatever she was about to face.

As she was spit out of the mist that had encased her, she was greeted by the sight of corn. She was on one of the farm maps. Which one, she didn't know yet but she would find out before too long she reasoned. 

She quickly set out to find a generator to work on, preferably one closer to a jungle gym. She hadn't gone very far from where she had started before she heard a gen that was being worked on. Following the noise, she located said generator and a familiar face working on it. 

"Hey Jake." Wren said

"Hey. Have you seen anything yet?" He asked.

"No. You?" Came Wren's response.

"Wouldn't be asking if I had." He replied.

"Guess that makes sense." Wren said, getting to work on the generator. 

The gen they were working on was sitting right beside one of the many tractors that were scattered across this iteration of the farm. It wasn't the safest or most secluded spot. But Wren hoped that with the two of them working together they could get it done before they had to entertain any unwanted guests. 

After a few more seconds of idle chatter between them, the two survivors fell into a suspenseful silence, both focusing on their own respective work while simultaneously keeping their ears and eyes tuned into their surroundings. They were both looking and listening for the same thing, which at this point was literally anything. Anything that would relieve the fear that they were up against a silent killer. 

While Wren's last trial was still fresh on her mind, she was almost certain she and Jake were both most wary of a different silent killer getting the jump on them. It wasn't long before they heard the sound of someone cry out in pain. Feminine, but not too feminine. 

"You think that was Nea?" Wren asked. 

"Sounded like it." Jake said, hardly sparing a glance in the direction that the sound had come from. 

It was as they were nearly finishing the gen that Wren had remembered her conversation with Quentin from earlier. 

"Hey Jake?" She started trying to get his attention.

"Yeah?" He asked, again not looking away from his work. 

"Uh, Quentin said he was going to talk to you and Tapp about a situation that I'm having to deal with outside of these trials. Did he get around to doing that yet?" Wren asked.

"Yeah, he said something about how Amanda got ahold of something of yours and how she's using whatever she got ahold of to blackmail you into being her guinea pig. No pun intended. What about it?" Jake asked.

"Well, Quen said you and Tapp were the experts when it came to Amanda. I was just wondering what you thought of the situation." Wren said. 

"Well, normally I'd say something along the lines 'It's your fault for missplacing it. Ask the Entity if she'll replace it for you.' cut your loses and all that. However with this case in particular, I'd say that all hope isn't lost yet." Jake said. 

"What do you mean all hope isn't lost?" Wren asked, skeptical of Jake's uncharacteristic optimism.

Jake didn't get a chance to answer as the gen they were working on came to life with a sound that was sure to attract unwanted attention. And as was expected it was only a few seconds before they heard the sound of a heartbeat growing closer. 

"Listen, we can talk more later but I think it's best if we split up for now. Whoever it is can only chase one of us at a time." Jake said, already starting to create some distance between himself and the offending generator. 

Wren got the message loud and clear. And without answering began sprinting in the opposite direction that Jake was going. Straight into the fields of corn where she had come from. It would be easier to hide from the killer with a sea of corn obstructing their view. 

Or so she thought. After another minute or so of running through the corn, Wren stopped to catch her breath. She was getting closer to the edge of the cornfield and could just barely start to see glimpses of a faded red barn in the distance. 

Wren started making a bee line for the barn in the distance when she heard the sound of the wind start picking up. Wait. Was that the wind? Maybe it was whispering or moaning. 

Wren was still debating what it was she was hearing when she saw a woman materialize out of thin air in front of her. 'Oh. That's what that sound was' she thought to herself as she took in the sight of the pale, ghastly woman standing before her. 

She hardly had a second to turn on her heels and start running before the bite of a blade was cutting into her back. Damn this woman was fast. Wren recognized her as the Spirit. One the most difficult killers to go up against on account that it was nearly impossible to out maneuver her even given the best conditions.

Unfortunately for Wren, she did not have the best conditions to work with. Quite the opposite actually. Here she was running through a wide open area that offered little to no cover. Even with the burst of adrenaline that allowed Wren to put a little bit of space between her and the Spirit, it was only a matter of seconds before the Spirit had caught up to her again and downed her with another swipe of her blade. 

Shortly afterwards, Wren was picked up and placed on a hook. This trial was shaping up to be a bad one. Wren could feel it in her bones. 

As Wren had expected, the trial had in fact been short lived after she was hooked. The survivors managed to get another generator done in the time that it took Adam to come and get Wren off the hook. But it wasn't long after that that she heard Nea being hooked on the far side of the map. To her surprise this turned out to be Nea's second time on the hook. Wren wasn't sure how she had managed to miss it the first time. But she slowly started making her way in the direction that she had heard Nea's scream come from. In the time that it took her to locate and unhook Nea, Jake had been grabbed and hooked as well. Meaning that she didn't have time to heal Nea, as the killer was very likely on her way back to the hook that she had just been rescued from. And as was expected it didn't take long for Nea to be found and hooked again. Adam managed to free Jake and heal him in the time that this was happening. But Wren was the next to be caught, and sadly she died on her next hook as the others prioritized getting enough gens done for the hatch to spawn. Clearly they saw where this trail was heading and decided to at least give one of them the chance to survive. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Soon after giving in, Wren's world faded to black and she awoke laying on her couch. She was inclined to just roll over and go back to sleep until her next trial, but decided that by the time she made it to the campfire Jake would probably be done with his trial and they could talk some more. So she sat up and went to put her boots on. 

Shortly there after she was making her way to the bonfire for the second time that day. When she arrived she was greeted by significantly fewer people than she had seen earlier. Bill, David, a slightly pissed looking Nea, Claudette and as she had expected Jake. 

Jake and Nea seemed to be having a conversation no doubt about what had transpired shortly before hand. 

"I just don't get how it is that hard to heal somebody." Nea was saying.

"She was right THERE. I'm not a miracle worker Nea. The best I could do is take a hit while you got a headstart. How was I supposed to know she had tunnle vision?" Jake was saying. He never raised his voice, though Wren could tell he was getting pretty close to it. 

"Jake, may I speak with you, alone?" Wren asked, clearly sensing the hostility.

"Yeah, I think I could go for a walk." Jake said, standing from his spot by the campfire.

Jake walked over to Wren and then completely passed by her, seemingly lost in thought. After a short pause Wren quickly started following him, having to jog a little bit to catch up. 

"Is everything okay?" Wren asked after they were out of earshot. They had been walking for a few minutes by now and Wren was still none the wiser as to where they were going, but Jake seemed to know so she didn't dwell on it, instead opting out to just follow him. 

"Yeah, everything is fine. Nea can just be a kinda unreasonable from time to time. Give her a little space and time and she'll be alright." Jake said. 

"Right speaking of that, uh where the hell are we going?" Wren asked.

"Oh right. Okay so about your situation with Amanda, I told you earlier that there is still hope. Hope that we can get your necklace back." Jake said.

"Well it was a ring, ya know, for starters. But assuming that that doesn't change anything, how are you suggesting that we get it back." Wren asked.

Jake paused for a second as if processing that information and Wren was beginning to become worried when Jake spoke suddenly again. 

"Okay, so that isn't going to effect things too much but I'm gonna have to get in touch with the people that I spoke to earlier about this." Jake said. 

"You told other people about this?" Wren asked.

"Yeah. Sorry but I kinda needed their help for this to work." Jake said. 

"For what to work?" Wren asked.

But before she could get her answer Jake stopped in his tracks. They had been walking for quite some time by now and she hadn't noticed but at some point they must have started trekking through the forest she had first arrived from.

She would have run into him had he not grabbed her and pulled her down into a crouch beside him and behind a boulder. Wren was about to ask if he had lost his mind, but before she could Jake motioned for her to stay quiet and follow his lead. Slowly and carefully Jake peeked around the boulder they were hiding behind and as Wren followed suit she could see the silhouette of a run down industrial building a couple hundred meters away from them in the distance.

"Is there a reason that we came out to a creepy old building?" Wren asked.

"Do you not recognize the name of the place?" Jake asked.

Upon closer inspection Wren did notice a sign over what appeared to be the entrance to the building. It read 'Gideon's Meat Packing Plant'. 

"I feel like I've read it somewhere but I couldn't tell you where." Wren said after a moment of thought.

"Let me enlighten you then." Jake said quietly. "That is what the piggy considers to be home."

Wren was still taking in this information when Jake continued with his train of thought.

"As I was saying earlier, I recruited a bunch of the survivors to help me because I need some information before I plan how best to approach this situation." Jake said. "Namely, I need them to see if Amanda is wearing the ring into trials. And tell me. If she's not we can sneak in and look for it while she's away. If she is, this is going to get a lot more complicated." Jake finished.

Wren was silent for a moment while she was making sense of the information and looking for any holes in Jake's plan. 

"How will we know when she's not here?" Wren asked.

"Well since we won't know when she's actually in a trial, we'll probably have to wait until she goes to the bathhouse. We'll have to do this the same way David and I did it the last time I broke into here." Jake said. He began going carrying on with his explanation before Wren interrupted him.

"Wait..wait are we just gonna gloss over that little tid bit of information?" Wren interrupted.

"Long story short, I wanted to know how the traps worked. Can't figure out how they work if I don't have one." Jake said.

"Is that why she hates you? Shit, I thought you two were exes or something." Wren said before Jake could continue.

"ANYWAY, back to the topic at hand. We're gonna have to do this the same way that I did this the first time. A while back I asked the Entity for a pair of walkies talkies and she delivered.

"Wait you just asked the Entity for something and she just gave it to you?" Wren asked.

"So long as what you ask for is within reason and so long as you do well in trials she may. David asked for a Hummer a while back, she still hasn't delivered on that one and I kinda hope it stays that way. Those things are loud. But that's not the point. Moving on, one of us will have to stay hidden here when the time comes, while the other keeps an eye out for her down near the bathhouse. Whoever is here signals when she leaves and whoever is at the bathhouse signals when she is on her way back. Don't wanna get caught in there with her alone. Any questions?" Jake asked, as he finished with his plan.

"Are we just gonna wait out here every day and hope we get lucky?" Wren asked.

"Yeah probably. She used to be more consistent, but since she learned what I was doing she has since started to change up her schedule." Jake said. "For now we're just going to have to be patient. Anything else?" Jake asked again.

"It sounds pretty solid but if I think of anything else I'll ask." Wren said, after a moment of contemplating. 

"One last question before we go back." Wren said.

"What is it?" Jake asked. 

"When do we begin?"

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two uploads?? In one week?? Who is she and what did she do with the real author??
> 
> What if I told you guys..that there was a third on the way this week?


	10. Fall: Part 1

On their way back from their trek in the woods, Wren and Jake solidified the plan as much as they could given that there were still a few unknown factors that could derail everything. While Wren had wanted to go home and get caught up on her sleep schedule, she opted out to go with Jake to the bonfire so that he could relay the message to his 'spies' that they were to be looking for a ring. Not a necklace as they had previously been informed to look for. Not only had she wanted to make sure that the message was delivered but she also wanted to see who else she was working with.

She greeted the ones at the campfire and Jake listed off the people that were helping but weren't there at the moment. The group consisted of Quentin, Nea, Meg, Bill, David, Claudette, and Jake. Quentin informed Wren that he had asked Tapp for his help and while Tapp had said that he was sympathetic to the cause and grateful for what Wren had done for him, he couldn't condone or take part in this crazy plan of theirs. 

With the group of 'spies' known to her, Wren and Jake continued with informing David and Quentin of the rest of their plan, seeing that they would be playing a bigger part than just looking for the ring in trials. While David had voluteered to help them further, they had to convince Quentin to help them further. Due to his sleep schedule or lack there of, Quentin made perfect sense to be a lookout. He would be able to keep an eye on things when the rest of them were asleep. While Wren felt absolutely awful asking Quen to interupt his already terrible sleeping habits, she rationalized with herself that she would go above and beyond to make sure that he got out of any trials that they were into together. 

After Wren left the campfire and made her way home, she was surprise not to be called into anymore trials for the day. She normally participated in three or four trials daily, so it caught her off guard that the entity seemed to be having mercy on her. Not that she was ungrateful. She would have kissed the entity if she had been there. After she realised she wasn't going to be called into another trial she debated whether or not to go to the bath house. After contemplated for a while, she deciding that it would probably be better not to. She didn't want to fall asleep in there, that and she also didn't want to humor any unwelcome company. So after she tidied up her cabin a little bit she decided to go to bed for the evening. She could feel that it was still fairly early but, fuck it, she had some catching up to do. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wren woke up the next morning feeling like her stomach was trying to eat itself. She had been so preoccupied dealing with other things the day before that she had almost completely neglected eating any food. She quickly began making her way downstairs and into her kitchen to make herself coffee and breakfast. It didn't take her long to finish eating after her food was ready so she sat on her couch sipping away at her coffee and waiting. And as she had expected, it hadn't taken very long for a familiar fog to start engulfing her. Wren quickly chugged what remained of her coffee before setting her cup down on the low table centered in front of her couch. 

As the fog fully encompased her and dissipated shortly after dropping her off elsewhere she was greeted by a sight that was familiar but also foreign to her at the same time. She recognized the abundant and lush vegetation from the Yamaoka Estate but a quick glance around showed that the most notable thing appeared to be a landmark in the center of the map. A shine? A hill? A man made mountain maybe? Wren couldn't say for sure so she came to the conclusion that she must be on one of the newer trial grounds. 

Without wasting anymore time, Wren decided to make her way to the top of the hill in the center. That would give her the best vantage point on the entire map. As she was climbing the stairs that led up to the upper area on the hill, Wren couldn't help but notice how exposed she was. Hopefully the killer started on the other side of the map. 

As Wren reached the peak, she was relieved to see a generator on top of the hill surrounded by what she would describe as the ruins of an old oriental shrine. She made her way over to the gen but not before taking a look at her surroundings from atop her new vantage point. She could see the shack, most of the generators, a totem here and there, and she could make out a couple of places that could serve as decent hiding spots. After she was satisfied with her observations Wren turned and began working on the generator she had seen. 

She had been working on her generator for a few minutes and had managed to get the first set of pistons running smoothly before she heard a single heartbeat. Wren stopped what she had been doing after a moment, not sure if she had actually heard something of not. After another moment of not hearing anything Wren was set to get back to her work, when out of the blue she had the overwhelming urge to run. 

She didn't know what took over her or why but Wren stood from where she had been working on her gen. She quickly and quietly walked a few feet away and hid behind one of the ruined walls. There she crouched where she was for a few seconds and listened. After a few moments of silence Wren made a move to go back to her generator only to stop when she heard the sound of someone kicking it. After everything she had experienced since she had been here, Wren was more afraid of that sound that anything else she had experienced. 

She had learned from the other survivors that some of the silent killers had tells when they were close to you. You could hear Ghostface's robes blowing in the wind. Myers had ridiculously loud breathing. The only one that was truly silent was..

So Wren listened. She would have loved to hear clothing blowing in the wind. Hell she may have even wanted it to be Michael. At least she would be able to hear where he was based on his breathing and avoid him entirely. But as she listened she couldn't hear anything. 

Wren sat there for longer that she would like to admit. It wasn't until she heard a single crow caw in her general direction that she humored the idea that the killer had moved on. She slowly but surely rounded the cornerof her hiding spot to see, much to her relief, that the area around the generator was free of any threats. 

"Fuckin snitch" she said to the crow before turning around and going back to her work. 

A fair bit of her work had regressed in her moment of apprehension. Nothing she couldn't fix though. She had only been working for a few seconds when she heard the sound of somebody cry out in pain. It was a man and it was close. Against her better judgement Wren stepped away from her work to look out over the trial grounds. 

As she peered over the edge she could see at the base of the hill a man running for his life. She'd seen that man before, having only talked to him in passing really. His name was Jeff or something like that. As Wren was watching him run she thought she caught sight of a blur out of the corner of her eye stalking through the brush behind him. She couldn't make out who it was and as it was they were already drawing too far away for her to make out the details clearly. 

Wren went back to her work shortly after. If Jeff was being chased she didn't want to waste the window of opportunity that presented itself to her any more than she had. After a few more minutes of relative peace Wren had just barely gotten the third set of pistons pumping when she heard another heartbeat. Wren immediately stopped what she had been doing this time and went back to where she had hid the first time. 

To her surprised the heartbeat didn't stop. If anything it was rapidly growing closer. As Wren listened closely, she could hear the sounds of people running. And it was getting nearer. Much nearer. Wren had been so caught up in listening that she hardly had time to register that those sounds were coming directly at her. 

So when she saw Jeff run around the same corner that she was hiding behind and slam a pallet down right beside her, she had a moment. A moment where she looked at Jeff. A moment where Jeff looked at her. A moment where she knew who was chasing him. A moment where she knew he was injured. A moment where he knew what he had just done to her. And a moment when Wren made a stupid decision. 

She pushed Jeff behind her and was motioning for him to run when she heard the first kick to the pallet. The next moment Wren took a deep breath, walked out of her hiding spot, and right into view of the killer. She rounded the corner in time to see the killer raise their foot again to break the pallet. 

When she entered the pig's line of sight Wren saw her hesitate. Stopping midway through what she was doing when they made eye contact. 

"You're not the little pig that I chased into here."

Wren heard the disappointment and the subtle entertainment in her voice when she spoke. Wren was almost too anxious to speak. She knew how this was going to end for her. By some amount of luck however her adrenaline managed to force her to speak. 

"Yeah, thought he could use a little break so he tapped out, I tapped in. You know how it goes." Wren said. 

"I know that it would be pretty fucking stupid to do that." The pig said and after a short pause, "Maybe you've reconsidered my offer?" 

At the mention of it, Wren took a moment to glance at Amanda's hands. She felt her heart drop at the sight of her ring nestled perfectly on the ring finger of Amanda's right hands. The same hand that her knifes was strapped to. The same hand that extended itself over the pallet that separated the two. 

"What do you say? Do we have a deal?" Amanda asked. 

"What do I say?" Wren asked looking at the hand that was outstretched to her. "Well I'd say I've bought Jeff enough time to get a pretty good head start." Wren said before turning on her heel and jumping over the edge of shrine.

It had to be roughly a twenty foot drop, luckily Wren didn't have snapped ankles to worry about thanks to the entity. After her feet touched the ground every atom of Wren's existence told her to run until her legs gave out, but she knew that that would only result in her dying tired. No, she would have to play the careful game and hope to win the chase before there was a chase. So Wren crouched down and made her way towards the statue nearest to her. She got on the opposite side of the statue to where she fallen and waited.

Within a couple of seconds she heard the sound of somebody else jump down from the shrine. Though she couldn't see her, there was an excess amount of brush and foliage encircling the base of the shrine. Wren knew certain death awaited her just on the other side of her piss poor hiding spot. She wouldn't be able to see it coming but she'd be able to hear it coming.

"You're an idiot for not taking me up on my offer. I could have made this so easy for you. But I'll tell you what, you were smart not to run."

Wren heard the sound of a blade retracting and a couple of seconds later the sound of the heartbeat disappeared. After another moment Wren heard the sound of grass shifting underneath somebody's weight as they moved. She heard the sound trailing off to her right and slowly started circling the statue in the opposite direction. Carefully, so as not to make a sound. She just needed to stay quiet and stay out of her line of sight long enough for her to move on.

After a few more seconds the sound of footsteps became inaudible to Wren, signalling that she should be safe. Even still, Wren was careful to back away from her hiding spot quietly. After checking that the coast was clear Wren turned and made a run for the far side of the map. 

She would have to find a generator elsewhere to work on. The first place the pig would look for her at would be on top of the shrine. She had to put as much distance between herself and that place as possible. She made her way in the direction of where she had seen the shack earlier. That place should offer her at least a little bit more protection than most places. 

Wren had carefully maneuvered her way around the outskirts of the map. She was ducking and weaving in between bushes and brush at every given opportunity. Before too long she made it to the shack and was greeted by the sound of a generator nearly worked to completion. As she walked into the shack she saw Nancy sitting on the gen working diligently. 

"Okay, tell me what we're working with." Wren said crouching down and getting to work along side her. 

"Well we've got two gens done, this will make three. Jeff stopped by earlier to get healed and said the gen on top of the shrine is fairly well done. And Kate had a trap on her head blinking pretty quickly earlier when she searched that." Nancy said pointing to a box that Wren had missed on her way into the shack. "I say we finish this, then we head to the top of the shrine, one of us finishes the gen there while the other sees if they can't spot Jeff from up there maybe give him a hand."

"Sounds like a plan, had anyone been hooked yet?" Wren asked. 

"Kate twice, she is not having a good time, Jeff has been hooked once, and I haven't been hooked yet. What about you?" Nancy asked.

"No, not yet." Wren said.

After a few more seconds of silence the generator they had been working on roared to life. Having not heard anything for a while, they slowly made their way over to the shrine. After making it to the base of the monument with no trouble the two started making plans as to who would be doing what. They were interrupted however when they heard the sound of a man screaming and felt a shockwave shake the trial grounds. A quick glance between the two managed to communicate what they were both thinking. 

Shit.

They were in a two gen two survivor scenario. This very rarely worked out in favor of the survivors. 

"We should start looking for the hatch." Wren said quietly. 

"You're right, let's split up. Whoever finds it, gets it." Nancy said. 

"Sounds fair." Wren said, getting a sense of deja vu.

With that Wren took one last look at her only ally and turned to walk back down the stairs while Nancy continued up the stairs. Wren had nearly made it to the bottom of the stairs when she heard it. The sound of Nancy being downed. No, thats not possible. Something wasn't right, she was just healthy a few seconds ago. Wren was shaken out of her stupor when she heard Nancy yell.

"WREN RUN IT'S DEVOUR HOPE!!" 

Wren's legs which had been frozen up until this point suddenly seemed to have a mind of their own as they started carrying her to one of the far corners of the map, much to her dismay. It wasn't until Wren had found a spot with foliage so thick that it would completely obscure her from sight did Wren stop. 

She needed to calm down. She needed to slow her breathing. It would only be a matter of time before the pig was on her. Wren had left a path that would be easy to follow straight back to her. She needed to move. She needed to hide. She needed to find the hatch. She needed..she needed..

*snap*

Wren's train of thought was derailed so quickly. She knew better than to make any sudden movements but every fiber of her being wanted to turn and look at where that sound had come from. It didn't take long however for the source of the noise to come into her line of sight. Amanda walked out right in front of Wren's hiding spot. 

"I know you're around here. Hell, if I didn't know any better I'd say you wanted me to find you what with that trail you left in your wake. My offer still stands you know, it's not too late to reconsider. Come out, we can talk about it. You get your ring, I get to run my tests, and everyone goes home happy. What do you say Wren?

Wren's blood had run cold ages ago, but hearing her name being spoken by this woman was enough to make her start shaking. Violently. Much to her dismay. If Wren didn't know what this woman was she would have probably agreed to her request long ago. After all how could the voice of a monster sound so inviting. Hell, she had half a mind to walk out of her spot right now, the only thing keeping her from doing that however was the sight of a blade still dripping with somebody else's blood protruding from this woman's sleeve only a few inches away from her face.

"You know, I'd really like to not hurt you if I don't have to."

At this Wren couldn't help the scoff that escaped her mouth. 

A moment of silence passed before a pair of hands reached in and pulled Wren by the shoulders from her hiding spot. Wren was so frozen in fear that she didn't even struggle against the grip that held her. 

"Why are you hiding? I told you I don't want to hurt you."

Wren felt a chill run from her head to her toes at Amanda's tone. It wasn't angry or loud. It was calm and quiet. In another life Wren might have called it comforting, inviting even. In this life she called it unnerving.

"Not wanting to and not going to are not the same things." Wren said, despite her situation she couldn't help her attitude. Shit, because of her situation she couldn't help her attitude. 

The grip on her shoulders hadn't been particularly rough up until this point but Wren could feel the grip tighten slightly before easing back to the way they had been before. 

"I'll ask you one more time Wren, will you reconsider?"

Despite her body telling her to agree to anything if it meant getting out of here alive, she knew that whatever Amanda had in store for her outside of here had to be so much worse than anything she could do to her in here. 

"No."

"What?"

"I said no." Wren said.

"I see. You're starting to test my patience. But I have been tested before. That being said, I think that it is time that you go." Amanda said.

Wren could feel Amanda's anger. Though she never once raised her voice, it was palpable. 

With little effort on her part, Amanda hoisted Wren up and over her shoulder and made her way towards the nearest hook. After she had been hooked and her screaming had subsided, Wren was surprised to find the pig still standing before her.

"I hope you and I have an opportunity to talk again real soon." Amanda said.

With nobody left to save her, the entity didn't make Wren suffer for very long, claiming her almost instantly.


	11. Fall: Part 2

When Wren next opened her eyes she was sitting on her couch, exactly where and how she had been before she was wisked away. Only this time Wren could feel herself shaking violently. Why had that trial shaken her up so much. She had been killed in much worse ways, by much scarier people. What was so unnerving about Amanda? 

Wren nearly let herself get caught up in that train of thought before she remembered. She had vital information that she needed to get to Jake and his spies. She took a moment to gather her thoughts as she laced her boots up and left her cabin. 

She walked at a fairly brisk pace on her way to the bonfire. She wanted to catch Jake before one or the other got dragged into another match. It didn't take her long to get to her destination and to her relief she saw Jake sitting next to Meg by the fire.

They must have just gotten out of a trial themselves, as they both looked frazzled and a little worse for wear. Jake appeared to be wrapping his shoulder as best as he could with bandages. And Meg looked like she was ready to storm off and pick a fight with the first thing to cross her path. 

"Who did you two to get?" Wren asked, as she approached them.

"Doc. Apparently he's got some new tricks. And we had the honor of being his newest test subjects." Meg spat, words dripping with venom.

"That bad huh?"

"Yeah. That bad." Jake said.

Having finished with his patch job, Jake took a moment to give Wren a once over. 

"So who did you get?" Jake asked. 

Wren must have been in a state similar to the two of them for it to be so obvious. 

"Take a guess." She said. 

After a short pause and a moment of clarity Jake asked, "How'd that go?"

Wren was getting ready to respond when she heard Jake inhale sharply. When she looked back over to him something clicked.

"Why hasn't the entity put you back together yet?" Wren asked, looking at his injuries.

"A lot of times when the entity introduces something new into the trials things can kind of go awry." Jake said. 

"How so?" Wren asked.

"Well, the entity has to know how everything in a trial works pretty..intimately. Especially new things. Whether that be a new killer or maybe new perks. Things need to be tested so that the entity can gauge whether these changes are fair and balanced. Sometimes things work exactly as planned but most times something goes wrong. Like today for example. Business as usual. Downed three times, hooked three times, but for some reason or another when I showed up back here I was still bleeding pretty badly from where I had been clipped by the Doctor. You still didn't answer my question." Jake said before finishing.

"Oh right. I managed to avoid her most of the match, up until Jeff ran her straight to my hiding spot and I kinda had to give myself up to buy Jeff some time." Wren continued on with her retelling of what had happened to her prior to showing up. And Jake sat there, listening intently, waiting patiently for Wren to finish. 

"So?" Jake asked as she concluded her story.

"So what?" Wren asked. 

"Did she or did she not have the ring?" Jake asked, like that should have been the most obvious question in the world.

And in hindsight it probably should have, but Wren had gotten so caught up in her retelling that she had managed to forget the reason that she had come here in the first place.

"Right. Yeah. She was wearing my ring during the trial." Wren said quietly.

After a moment of though Jake spoke up.

"Well that throws a wrench in our plan, now doesn't it. How are we supposed to get it back if she doesn't take it off?"

Wren stopped for a moment and really thought about what Jake said. She was so lost in thought that she didn't register that black fog had started enveloping her until it was too late.

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"Son of a bitch. I really need to start paying more attention for that." Wren said to nobody in particular as she was thrown into another trial. 

It couldn't have been more than a second after her feet hit the ground that Wren felt a biting wind cut straight through her body faster than any knife ever had. She would've known where she was at if she had been blindfolded, if not for the cold then because of how the snow crunched with every step she took. Wren may have hated the swamp but if Wren had to rank her least favorite locations, Ormond would come in at a very close second. 

At least it didn't smell and the snow was easier to move through than sludge. Albiet noisier. Wren didn't like noisier, she favored sneaking as opposed to being upfront and altruistic. Wren set off fairly quickly from her initial starting point. Wren had learned from the last and first time that she had been here that the generator in the lodge was the most important to get finished. If you could get it done, then the rest would follow quickly after. 

Wren started for the center only to stop in her tracks shortly after. That was another thing Wren hated about this map. Survivors were so easy to track down because they left literal tracks for the killers to follow. That wasn't what caused her to stop however. No, what caught her attention was the sound of a bottle breaking and the sight of a purple mist spreading through the bottom floor of the main building a hundred or so meters away. 

"Son of a bitch." Wren mumbled underneath her breath. She quickly ducked behind a boulder when she saw a portly old man walk out of the building and head in the direction opposite of her. 

Wren hadn't been afraid of many things in her life prior to coming here. Heights, certain types of spiders, the ocean freaked her out, but none of those fears came close to her fear of clowns. Him. She hated him. More than she hated Michael. He creeped her out more than Amanda ever could.  
Long story short, Wren's day was shaping up to be complete and utter shit. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wren's memory became fuzzy after her match with the Clown. She remembered making it out of the trial with one other survivor, though she didn't remember who that survivor was. Wren found that in the handful of matches that she had had with the clown her brain disassociated so hard that often times she hardly had any memories from the encounter when she wound up back at the campfire aftetwards. And Wren couldn't be happier for it. 

After her match, when Wren materialized back at the campfire she took a rare moment to truly appreciate just how warm the campfire was. Wren remained lost in thought until she was pulled into another match and even then hardly gave any thought as to what she was doing. She was still disassociating pretty hard. She went about running on auto pilot for most of the match, only breaking out of her stupor when she heard and saw the exits gates starting to open in front of her. 

She blinked several times, trying to get a grasp on her surroundings and her situation. 

"Oh. I did that." She said aloud looking from the gates that were opening up before her and her hand which had been resting on switch to her left. She didn't remember how she had got there or working on generators or saving her fellow survivors.

Jeez, she needed to clear her head when she got back to camp. Wren took a step towards the exit only to jump out of her skin when she heard the sound of a pallet slamming down right behind her. She turned in time to see Jane run past her and a woman on the other side of the pallet who had stopped briefly to readjust her mask. 

Wren's heart nearly jumped right out of her throat before she realized that this was a different masked woman. She was younger, and louder, and able to vault over pallets, and wearing pink. She doubted Amanda even owned anything..wait vaulted over..?

Oh shit!

Wren hardly registered what she had seen in time to start running towards and straight through the exit gates. She didn't spare a glance over her shoulder as the entity started to pull her back to camp and away from whatever killer was right on her tail. She just hoped her teammates had the other gate opened by now. 

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When Wren appeared at the campfire for the last time that evening she nearly felt her legs give out underneath her. Her day off could not come sooner, she thought to herself. What was it now, three maybe fours days she thought to herself. She didn't dwell on these thoughts for very long as her mind started drifting off to other matters. And it wasn't long after that she felt a familiar feeling pass over her, the feeling that signalled that she would no longer be called to participate in anymore trials today. 

Wren stood from her spot at the campfire shortly after and made her way home. She had hardly returned when she decided, against her better judgement, that she needed a shower. Killers be damned. She was not going to throw away her hygiene just because she had to bathe in close quarters with serial killers. Wow. That sounded so weird. Wren thought to herself as she gathered her bathing supplies and made her way towards the bathhouse. 

After a short trek, Wren reached her destination and upon entering gave the place a quick once over. Just because she wanted to be hygienic didn't mean she was any less apprehensive to who and what may be lurking around in here. After she was satisfied with her survey of the area, Wren made her way over to her regular shower stall and began stripping. 

Before long she was standing under a stream of constant, borderline scalding water. She stood there for probably fifteen or so minutes just letting the water wash away her troubles from the day. But after so long she decided that it was probably best to actually do what she had come here to do. Bathe. And after another ten or so minutes she was stepping out to dry herself off and go about the rest of her routine. 

She had gotten dressed and had hardly taken a step out of the stall when she nearly jumped out of her skin. On the far side of the bathhouse near the last few sink stood two very familiar women. She hadn't heard them come in. Wren had a moment where she considered ducking out of the bathhouse and running. But fuck it. Nea said she should be perfectly safe. That and Wren really needed to brush her teeth. 

So as quickly and as quietly as she could Wren made her way over to the sink across from where her shower stall was. If she was lucky maybe they wouldn't bother her and if she was really lucky maybe they wouldn't even notice her. However unlikely that may be. And as she had expected she had just managed to get toothpaste on her brush and wet it before she saw somebody lean against the sink to her left. 

"Is there something that you needed?" Wren asked while turning her head to look the ravenette in the eyes.

Judging by the look that she received from the other woman, Wren would have thought that she had just asked the dumbest question in the world. Looking back on it though, maybe that was a pretty stupid question to ask. This woman had only ever been interested in one thing that Wren could give her. 

"Listen, I'm really not in the mood to deal with you today." Wren said.

And after a moment of silence Wren went back to what she had been doing before, fully expecting to be interrupted. Amanda hadn't said anything thus far, but the feeling of having such a dangerous woman standing just a couple of inches away was starting to wear on Wren's already frazzled nerves. Wren could have brushed her teeth faster and bolted ages ago. But she refused to give this woman the satisfaction of knowing just how much she bothered her. So she took her time in what she was doing and when she was finally satisfied she bent over the sink to rinse her mouth of the excess toothpaste only to feel a hand grab her by the nape of the neck. 

It wasn't rough, much to Wren's surprise. Despite the situation and who had a hold of her, Wren didn't feel threatened. The touch was warmer than she thought it would be and aside from some light callusing, soft. Though Wren would never mention it to anyone. Wren had thought that her head was going to be forced underwater and that she would be drowned. But the woman made no move to harm her. Like this touch only served to remind Wren of her presence. And after a few more seconds the woman loosened her grip and withdrew her hand. Wren rose from her bent position slowly and turned to look at the woman that still hadn't left her personal space. 

"Why didn't you fight it?"

"I didn't feel threatened."

Another moment of silence passed between the two, neither daring to look away from the other. Then it registered to Wren what she had just said. Without thinking much more about what had transpired, Wren collected her things and made her way back home. 

She didn't know why, but she felt like the walk back to her cabin took significantly longer this time around. When she finally did get home she climbed the stairs to her loft, sat her bathing supplies down, and flopped onto her bed. She kicked her boots off and tucked herself underneath the covers. She knew it was still early but she wanted to get to sleep before her mind began to wander. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wren awoke the next morning feeling surprisingly well rested. She laid in bed for a few more minutes after she was awake, thinking about her dreams and about warm hands and how they would feel as they traveled over her body. Wren felt a stupid grin forming on her lips before it occured to her just who's hands she was thinking about. At that thought Wren bolted up and out of her bed, deciding to get a headstart on the day, if only to give herself something else to think about. 

Wren made quick work of getting ready for her day. She was surprised to find a new set of clothes and a new pair of boots resting on top of her dresser. She didn't dwell on it for long though. She had heard about the entity doing things like this for the survivors every so often. 

She stopped to admire her new outfit however. It consisted of a black leather jacket lined with a creme colored fur, a deep red t-shirt, a pair or ripped black skinny jeans, and a pair of black combat boots with red treads. Wren picked up her new jacket and upon flipping it over saw the profile of a stag embroidered on the back. Say what you will about the entity but at least she had Wren's fashion sense down to a T. After a short moment of deliberation, Wren decided that she might as well break in her new clothes. It wasn't long afterwards that Wren was on her way to the campfire with one piece of toast in her mouth and another in her hand. 

Shortly after spotting the campfire and Jake sitting nearby it, Wren scarfed down what remained of her toast and made her way over to him. 

"Ey ake, oi gt a pan t gt my rng bck."

"What?" Jake asked as Wren walked up. 

After another few seconds of struggling Wren managed to eat the last bits of toast that she still had in her mouth. 

"Man, I outta ask the entity for a thermos. Could really use some coffee to wash that down with." Wren mumbled to herself. 

"So did you not need anything?" Jake asked skeptically. 

"What? Oh yeah." Wren said as she remembered why she was in such a rush. "Okay so last night I was lying in bed and I think I have a plan to get my ring back."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's about time to get some of that good shit if you know what I'm talking about. Y'know some of that *chef's kiss* spicy angst.


	12. Fall: Part 3

"No"

"What? What do you mean 'no'?"

"I mean, no." Meg said, after Wren kept pushing.

"You're one of the best runners we have, we need you." Wren said.

Wren had told Jake her plan and as she had expected he agreed. Albeit with a few questions, but that was to be expected. Jake always wanted to iron out the finer details. And Wren could appreciate that. What Wren couldn't appreciate was a certain stubborn red-headed son of a-

"I said no and I meant no. If you guys want to go and get yourselves killed that's up to you. But personally I'd like to take the time in which I'm not being hunted down to..you know, not be hunted down." Meg said. 

"What's the worst thing that can happen Meghan? Is she gonna kill us even harder?" Wren asked. 

"Firstly, don't EVER call me Meghan. Secondly, yes. What do you think she keeps in that workshop of hers? I don't think she uses all that spare space to store creepy fuckin' puppet dolls." Meg said. 

"She does not." Jake said matter of factly from where he sat a few feet away. 

Both girls stopped their bickering to look over at him, both having just remembered that of all the survivors, Jake was the only one who had gotten in and out of the place safely.

"Meg, we're not asking you to break in. We've got that handled. What we need is for someone with your skill set to help us with the second phase of our plan." Jake said, almost pleading. 

"I'm sorry, but my answer is still no." Meg said. "Now if you two don't leave me alone, I'm going to ask the entity to throw me into another trial."

About a second passed before fog started encircling Meg from the ground up. 

"What? Wait no, I was joking. I was-"

And like that, Meg was swallowed up entirely. 

"I guess the entity really does give you what you ask for, huh?" Wren asked.

After a few seconds of not hearing a response, Wren looked to Jake to find him lost in thought. Wren was becoming more accustomed to this sight. She had explained to Jake her new and improved plan yesterday. They had both been spending their time in between trials recruiting the people they would need to pull this off. 

"Who else could we go to?" Wren asked, more to herself than anyone else. 

Another moment of silence passed before a larger than life voice spoke up, causing both Wren and Jake to jump a fair bit. 

"Well now!" The voice boomed. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop on all that, but I couldn't help but overhear the tail end of you guys' conversation as I was walkin' over. And I'd like to formally voluteer my services to this just cause." 

Wren and Jake looked up to see David King walk over and take a seat on one of the unoccupied logs that surrounded the bonfire. 

David King was one of the few people that would be helping them in the first phase of their plan. He and Quentin would be tasked with keeping an eye out for Amanda. And signalling when she was on her way to and from the bathhouse. That much of the original planned hadn't changed much. It was what they were after, once they had successfully broken into Gideon's that had changed.

"Don't take this the wrong way David, but this is kind of a job that requires you not to get caught." Jake said after a moment. 

"Is it? 'Cause from what I can tell, it sounds like more of an 'annoy the living piss outta the killer' kinda situation. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that I am the most qualified in that particular field of expertise." David said.

Wren and Jake looked at each other for a second.

"He's not wrong." Wren said.

"No he's not." Jake agreed. 

"Okay so here's the plan. You know the first part so we're not going to bore you with that again. Unless you need a refresher?" Wren asked.

"Nope. I'm good." David said.

"Alright then, the second part is going to go a little something like this.."

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Today was the day.

Or at least Wren hoped it was. David and Quentin had been watching diligently for the target. So far nothing. Which meant surely, she would have to be getting close to leaving her workshop. Right?

Wren could hardly sleep the night before. After informing everyone of the part that they were to play in the upcoming events and heading back to her cabin for the evening, sleep evaded her for entity knows how long. Between the long day of trials that she had just endured and her increasingly sporadic sleep schedule, she should be feeling exausted. But instead, every nerve in her body was on edge. Every sense hightened as she waited. 

She currently sat hidden behind the same boulder she and Jake had used as cover last time they had come to Gideon's. Jake was hidden in some brush a couple hundred feet away. The plan was that if one of them got caught, they'd have to keep Amanda occupied long enough for the other to sneak past her. If they got caught that is. If all went according to plan that wouldn't be necessary though.

They must have been there for roughly an hour or so before Wren humored the idea of calling it a night. Her legs were starting to cramp up and she had the distinct feeling that if they had to run at some point, she would be little more than dead weight. Wren was about to reach into the bag that she had brought with her to grab her flashlight and signal to Jake that she was going to head back to camp when the sound of grating metal disturbed the silence. 

At this Wren's heart leaped into her throat. It was happening. This was one of the potentially risky parts of their plan. They had to wait for Amanda to pass by them and get far enough away that they were out of earshot to continue. And while it was dark, as it always was what with the whole perpetual night thing, Wren would be very exposed once Amanda passed by her hiding place. Unable to move for fear of snapping a twig or creating any other noise that may alert their target. No, she would have to stay perfectly still and wait. Knowing that all Amanda needed to do at any point was turn around and she'd be caught. 

She just had to sit still. It was easy. Painfully easy. So why was Wren starting to shake again. Wren took in several deep breaths in hopes that it may steady her nerves enough for the next few minutes. 

Slowly the sound of footstep grew nearer to Wren's hiding spot. Though it couldn't have been more than a few seconds before they came, passed, and began fading away into the distance Wren swore her own heart was beating loud enough to be heard. 

After the sound of footsteps faded to silence Wren waited another minute or so before she signalled to Jake that she was going to be heading into the building now. Two flashes from her flashlight. When she recieved one flash in return she knew that her message had been received. 

Slowly but surely she moved away from her hiding spot and towards the front of the building. She felt and heard bones somewhere in her legs pop loudly as she stood. She was grateful that she hadn't moved earlier as that sound would have surely caught someone's attention.

As Wren drew closer she scanned the front of the building for the door that they had seen on their last visit. It wasn't long before she found it and reached for the door handle. A moment before she grabbed it Wren had a moment of apprehension. 

She was really about to do this. She was really about to make herself public enemy number one to this woman. All for a ring. Was it really worth it? 

Yup.

Without another moment of hesitation Wren grabbed the handle and pulled. She shouldn't have been surprised by the sound that it had made, seeing that she literally just heard it, but for some reason her current situation seemed to amplify that same sound tenfold. Oh..she really hoped Amanda was well out of earshot by now. Wren didn't waste much time after that, only taking the time to attempt and close the door slowly and quietly behind her. 

Having successfully infiltrated the building, Wren stopped for a moment to take in her surroundings. Though the layout of the building seemed to be largely the same as when they were in trials, Wren did stop to appreciate that the smell of rotting meat and the perpetual cold of the meat locker were both absent from this iteration of the building. 

After another tentative look around Wren made her way over in the direction that she thought the workshop area was. Having only been in this building a couple of times during trials and having had more pressing concerns at the time, Wren hadn't given much thought to memorizing the layout. Before long and after only two wrong turns and one near death experience, regarding a certain hole in the floor, Wren managed to find the workshop relatively unscathed. 

She was surprised to see that despite the rest of the factory being largely unchanged, the workshop area looked very much different outside of trials. The tables were littered with all sorts of gears, bolts, cogs, and screws. On one table in particular, Wren saw a partially made reverse bear trap and on another something else currently being worked on. Wren had no idea what it was or what it did and quite frankly she had no intention of finding out. There were several crates filled with an assortment of mechanical parts lined up against one of the walls. And along the other wall Wren spotted the area that Amanda must sleep at. It was fairly barren aside from an unmade bed and some sketches decorating the walls. But just a little farther to the left Wren spotted what she was truly after. 

In the far corner sat a shelf. Fairly ordinary by most accounts. But it was what lay on the shelf, THAT, that was what Wren was after.

Four hyper realistic masks. All resembling a pig's head and all in surprisingly pristine condition. No blood, guts, or anything on them that hinted at what they were actually used for.

Wren didn't waste much time after that gawking. She found what she was after. She quickly shucked off her backpack, gathered all four masks, and placed them gingerly inside. Closing her bag, Wren turned to start retracing her steps back to the front door only to find somebody standing in the doorway watching her. 

"SON OF A BITCH!!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Jake? Why??" Wren nearly yelled, before remembering their situation.

"You were taking a while, I thought you got hurt or worse." Jake said. Hardly seeming fazed by Wren's outburst. "Did you get what you needed?" Jake asked.

"Yeah." It was all Wren could say between her still panicked breaths. 

"Good, if we leave now we may be able to avoid her entirely on our way back to camp." Jake said. 

"Have you still not heard from the boys?" Wren asked.

Before setting out on their little journey Jake had handed David one of his walkie talkies and kept one for himself, telling David to signal to him whenever he spotted Amanda entering the bathhouse and to signal again when he saw her leaving. They needed to know exactly how much time they had before she returned, not wanting to accidentally cross her path on the way back to camp. 

"David signalled me roughly fifteen minutes ago to tell me that she got to the bathouse." Jake said.

"Have I really been in here THAT long?" Wren asked. 

"Yeah, kinda. But we can talk about that later. Right now we need to get out of here." Jake said already making his way back through the building. 

It couldn't have been more that five minutes before they were both standing outside, trying to close the door as quietly as possible.

"You know your way around there much better than I do." Wren said as they both turned to get on the trail that would lead them back to camp.

"Uh yeah. It's pretty similar right now to what it is like in the trials." Jake said. 

After getting on the trail the two walked in tandem for a few quiet minutes before the sound of radio chatter broke the silence.

"Hey, this is Eagle One reporting to Baby Birdie. The Chicken has flown the coop. I repeat, the Chicken has flown the coop. Over." David's voice called out over the walkie talkie. 

"Eagle One, this is Baby Birdie. Message recieved loud and clear. We've acquired the package and are on our way to the rendezvous point. Can we get an ETA on the Chicken? Over." Jake said into his own walkie. 

There was a short pause before David's spoke through again. 

"Baby Birdie, I'd say your squadron has roughly five minutes before a collision occurs. I would advise deviating from your current course. Over." David said. 

"We'll be at the rendezvous in roughly five minutes Eagle One. If we aren't there within the given timeframe assume the worst and send reinforcements. Over." Jake said. 

Jake and Wren shared a look. 

"Okay so, camp is in roughly that direction." Jake said, pointing off to Wren's right. "Our best bet to avoid her is to run in as straight of a path as we can headed in that direction as quickly as we can. Okay?" Jake asked.

"Okay." Wren said.

There was another moment of silence between the two of them where neither moved a muscle. Then like a fire had been lit beneath them, they were both running as quickly as their legs would carry them through the wooded area surrounding their camp. It wasn't long before Wren's legs and lungs were burning from the exertion. And in that moment, Wren couldn't help but feel like this was familiar somehow. She didn't have time to dwell on it though, as the forest in front of her seemed to be thinning pretty quickly. Another few seconds of running and Wren cleared the edge of the forest standing in a clearing with the familiar sight of the bonfire roughly a hundred feet in front of her. 

Wren stopped at the edge of the forest to catch her breath. She'd say that she had been running full force for around three minutes straight. But Wren only had a moment to rest before Jake came barreling out of the forest behind her. 

"What took you so long 'Baby Birdie'?" Wren asked. 

"Oh ha ha, very funny." Jake said between breaths. "Don't forget that we still aren't finished yet." Jake said.

"Right, I know." Wren said, having been able to recover from her sprint a little bit.

"You go ahead. I think I'm gonna stay here for a minute, catch my breath, maybe find a nice bush and throw up a little." Jake said, before turning around and quickly making good on the later portion of his promise. 

Wren didn't have to be told twice, not wanting to even be within earshot of what was going on behind her. And after a few more seconds Wren started jogging in the general direction of her cabin. She stopped for a moment once she neared the bonfire, having heard a familiar voice.

"Nea!!" Wren exclaimed. Watching as the woman she addressed startle a little. Nea was sitting on a log beside Yui and they both seemed to be deeply invested in a conversation that was carrying on between the two of them, when Wren approached. "Phase Two is a go. Meet me at my cabin in five." Wren said.

"Can it wait?" Nea asked.

"What? No. Didn't you hear? Phase Two is a go." Wren said again. Not quite sure why Nea was reluctant, until she looked back at the two women. When had they gotten so close? Wait. Oh. Nea wasn't talking to her she was..okay, yeah no that made sense. "Fine, ten minutes and not a second later." Wren said, before turning and starting to jog back to her cabin. 

When Wren arrived home she hadn't managed to step a foot inside her cabin before she was bombarded with questions. 

"Why are you late? Where's Jake? You said five minutes it's been six minutes and thirty-nine seconds. Is Nea gonna be here? Where did you get that tea pot? It's lovely." A gasp. "Did Jake get caught? Is the Pig on her way here right now to gut us all? Aaahh!! I gotta move. I can't be seen with you people."

"Quentin." 

"I gotta change my name. Qu..Qui..Quincy! Yeah, Quincy that'll work." 

"QUENTIN."

A moment of silence.

"I'm late because I stopped to talk to Nea on my way here. Yes she's going to be here but she's going to be late so we'll begin without her and fill her in when she gets here. That tea pot showed up the morning after I first got here and it is nice isn't it?..No, Jake did not get caught. And yes Amanda is on her way here right now to chop us all up into tiny bits and pieces so that she can feed us all to the Demigorgon."

"WHAT?!"

"Nah, I'm just kidding about that last part..probably." Wren said. At this she heard David start laughing from where he had made himself comfortable on her couch. 

"So if 'Birdie' ain't caught, where is he?" David asked.

"Last I saw him he was watering some plants with whatever he ate for lunch." Wren said, grimacing at how she phrased that. 

"Ew" She heard David and Quen say in unison.

"Yeah." 

A moment passed before they heard a knock at the front door. Wren made a move to open it, only for Quentin to beat her to it. 

"Let me in." 

Wren could hear Nea on the other side of the door but had to peek around Quentin to see her.

"What happened to ten minutes?" Wren asked, a knowing grin on her face.

"There's not a lot of fun that can be had in ten minutes. I'd rather get this out of the way sooner so that I can get back to what I was doing. Oh, and I grabbed him on my way over" Nea said, stepping to the side to reveal a slightly less sick looking Jake sitting on the stairs leading up to Wren's cabin. 

"Hey." Jake managed weakly.

Wren was getting ready to greet him when she was pushed to the side by David as he came barreling past her. 

"Baby Birdie!! Did the mean lady hurt you?" David said walking over and nearly scooping Jake up bridalstyle.

At that three sets of eyebrows raised.

"Firstly, do not call me that when we aren't on walkies. Secondly, put me down. And thirdly, no the mean lady didn't hurt me." Jake said in a huff. 

While David did set Jake down shortly after, he refused to leave his side once they had made their way into the cabin. 

"Okay then. Well if there aren't anymore interruptions, I think I'd like to get this meeting started." Wren said.

"It's time for phase two."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're so close. So damn close to the spice. Can y'all taste it in the air?

**Author's Note:**

> P.S. I'm open to constructive criticism. Also if there is a pairing you'd like to see, let me know in the comments and I will devote my time to 'research' these pairings and maybe add something that will make you guys happy.


End file.
